The Cline Family

Memphis Botanic Gardens

2012-02-09T08:53:00.002-06:00

I've given up. I'm never going to properly blog about Christmas so this is it: Christmas was fun. We celebrated at home, Santa brought sooo many legos and then we drove to Maryland. We had tons of fun and then we drove home.

The week we came back Chase graduated from nursery (the class at church for kids 18 mos-3 yrs) to Primary (3 yrs-12 yrs). I was very worried because this kid hated nursery. Honestly, he hates going anywhere- he's a homebody, through and through. So when I walked through the hall with the class I teach and heard him crying I was not even a little surprised. What surprised me is that once he got in the room with the other kids and saw Ian he was totally fine. When his class split off from the group he was still fine. It is so nice knowing that he's finally happy. Here he is with the cap that he was given. Notice the happiness.

The weather here is amazing. The bulbs I planted out front our first year here are coming up nicely and I've seen trees beginning to blossom. Pretty nice for February if I do say so myself. I'm predicting a tornadic spring though since this all seems too good to be true. Anyway, one Saturday we drove to the Botanic Gardens and bought ourselves a membership and had a great time. The have an area called My Big Backyard where we spent most of our time since little of the garden was in bloom. It was fantastic. They had a little creek, mostly dry, that the kids ran around in. Ian found a little boat to sit in.
It was pretty cute so I made Troy and Chase sit in it too.

There was a chrysalis swing....

...that I also made Troy sit in. Almost nine years and still so in love.

A shovel in the wall.

I loved Wormville. In addition to giant earthworm benches there were several metal tubes planted in little hills to climb through. The boys and I had a fun time crawling through.

Playhouse Lane had to be my favorite part though. The houses were so cool. One was built out of branches and looked like a fairy house. There was one full of "instruments" like pipes and wrenches to make music with and an I-Spy house with a wall covered with lots of little toys and kick knacks and lists of what to find. You could climb into a little loft and peek out of the top, like my little Seth is doing here.

After that we strolled the gardens. Mostly Seth and Ian ran and Chase complained. There was a pond with huge carp that followed you as you walked along it, hoping for fish food. Chase was terrified I was going to fall in. He called it the "stupid darn stupid darn" water. Later when Troy wouldn't hold him he told him he was" just a stupid." We're having a little problem with that one's mouth. We don't say stupid in our house since it's unkind but he's decided that it's his favorite thing to say.

I can't wait until our next visit. Memphis is a pretty cool place to live.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-05T08:14:00.003-06:00

It's resolution time again. Not that I make good resolutions but I feel like I should make some just because.

1. Not get head lice. Ian brought lice home from school or church and it's taken us over a month but it's finally gone. I never, never want those little buggers in my home again. Never.

2. Grow something. My seed catalogs have started arriving and this year I'm actually going to order something and grow it, darn it.

3. Make a quilt. It's kind of in my blood to make a quilt and I think it's time to do it. I got a large mat for Christmas and now all I've got to do is buy a rotary cutter and find a way to make my indecisive self pick a pattern and fabric.

I'm also going to be keeping track of books I read this year on my sidebar. I wish I'd done it last year because I love lists like that. Now that I have my Kindle (thank you husband for going over your Christmas budget) I can check out library books from home. I prefer real books but our library's shortened hours + Troy's night classes make it almost impossible for me to get to the library as often as I'd like. You know, twice a week or so. I kind of have a problem.

Some things change....

2011-12-16T15:14:00.003-06:00

...while others stay the same. Case in point: Today Seth brought home this wonderful book about holidays that he recently made in his 2nd grade class.
Immediately I thought of this:

Yes, that's the same book and it was done by me way back in the day when I was in 2nd grade. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that some of my favorite projects are still being done and that I'm the kind of crazy person who would still have school work from 22 years ago.

October

2011-11-01T09:12:00.005-05:00

We actually had a pretty cool month. Troy decided at Cedar Hill Farms that he wanted to buy a couple of pie pumpkins and make pumpkin pie from scratch. Now, I'm not a big fan of pumpkin pie but I will say that his homemade pie was better than the kind made from the cans of puree. I thought it would be fun to roast the seeds. As always, Ian was my most willing helper in the kitchen and loved the all the goo. The actual roasted seeds were not so appetizing but it was fun to make them with my little guy. Next up, So You Think You Can Dance. The show was awesome. I've seen it live a couple of times in Columbus and really liked it but this was way better. The dancing never stopped and they performed several new routines. I got tickets pretty much right after they went on sale and went with four friends who are also SYTYCD addicts. I don't know why I like the show so much- it's not like I can dance. Maybe that's why I like it. Four of us went to the Kooky Canuck for dinner before the show. It's my dream to go back there for the Kookamunga Challenge. I couldn't do it myself of course, but I think it would be fun to do it as a family. They also serve an dessert with 18 scoops of ice cream.

A couple of weekends ago Troy's parents and sister drove down for a visit. We went to the Paula Deen buffet for lunch one day. It serves dreamy Southern food and if it wasn't so far away I think I'd go more often. The best part was getting carded on my in (it's in a casino). I can't believe that woman seriously thought I wasn't 21 but I'm not complaining. Here are the boys on her "porch" outside the buffet.

We were also able to go to River Walk. It wasn't part of the plan so I didn't bring extra clothes but the boys didn't get too wet. I take that back. Chase didn't get too wet. Seth and Ian were pretty soaked by the end but it was such a nice day that they didn't complain about it. Not much anyway.

We also carved our pumpkin while they were here. We had to put it off because it was just too warm to have a carved pumpkin out front but Troy couldn't hold out any longer. The boys helped for about 2 seconds.

Troy finished it up and it looked great. I debated putting a picture of it in this post but the weeds around the door were just too embarrassing to share. Take my word for it, it was a good looking pumpkin. I decided to try my hand at costume making this year. Seth wanted to be Harry Potter so I made him robes, a tie and a wand. Ian changed his mind about every other minute but eventually decided he wanted to be Tigger which was cool with me because we already had it in the attic. Chase loves. loves, loves Super Why and really wanted to be him but I couldn't find any green pants so he settled in being a ghostie. Or a Scary Pillowcase which is what Troy called it once. I think this is the most fun Chase has had on any holiday, ever. Last night as we waited at a friend's house to go out he would randomly pop inside, say "Happy Halloween!!" a couple of times and then run back out again. So cute.

Tigger striking a pose

My little Ghostie trying to stand like Tigger. Yes, he has a black eye. He had a little fight with the fireplace and lost.

Seth a.k.a. Harry Potter. And what did Seth do when a neighbor couldn't get her door open to give them all treats? Say "Alohomora"? Yup. The kid's obsessed.

Here we are at our first house. We might have gone there twice :)

It was a good month.

Field Trips and the Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-13T10:20:00.007-05:00

Life's been super busy but until recently I didn't have any pictures worth posting. During summer break I baby-sat for one friend and I'm watching another little guy for another friend while her husband's in school. Heather told me I needed to be asked to be released as the "Ward Baby-Sitter." I really don't mind though because when I think of all the wonderful people who've helped me out with my kids I can't help but want to help others. Plus, my kids love having their friends over. Totally win-win.

New this year is my ability to help out in Seth and Ian's classes on Friday mornings. My sweet husband arranged his schedule so he could stay home that morning and have some extra Chase time. I alternate between kindergarten and second grade and do exciting things like collate, uncollate (is that a word?), staple, fold, cut, tape and take projects down from the hallway walls. I love it! I love seeing the boys in their element as well as giving their teachers much needed help. I really don't know how they work without aides and I wish I could be there more. When Chase starts school in a couple of years the school will be sick of me and how often I'm there. That's the plan anyway. Ian doesn't cry anymore when I leave. He only looks like he's going to cry and Seth loves me sitting with him in the hall waiting for his teacher. I've gotten to know several of the kids who love to greet Miss Cline whenever they see me.

And now I'll start going through the pictures. There are a lot so I won't blame you for stopping now.

First, Seth learned to ride his bike without training wheels. Maybe we should have done this with him a long time ago. Troy told him he could get a new (and bigger) bike once he'd learned, thinking it would take a few days. Nope. It took like 10 minutes and then we had to get that bike we hadn't saved for. Totally worth it though. He loves his new bike.

Soon after Seth had a Flat Stanley project. He's read a couple of the books and I even brought a Flat Stanley along on our Epic Road Trip but there was so much other stuff going on that we never got around to coloring him. Oh well. Seth's teacher this year is great and he typically has a project to do every week and I can always see how they relate to the topics being covered. I hate busy work and I think she does too because his homework is always reinforcement rather than junk. He's also in a optional class which means it's harder work too but he's doing a great job and loves school. Here is Seth and Flat Seth at the library.Seth and Ian are also in a program at school called CLUE. It's for gifted kids and to get in a student has to read two grade levels above their current grade. I'm so glad I have early readers because it's wonderful. They study topics using critical thinking and group dynamics and after each MESS (Mind Exposive Super Study) they go on a field trip or do something else fun. Ian's class studied ice cream and made ice cream. Seth's class studied string and went to a museum that was supposed to have string games but ended up just teaching them cool things about Mid-South Native Americans.

Here's Seth in the lab with a friend and some mica.

Here he is with a turtle shell. Pretend I turned the picture.
And all the second grade CLUEsters.
Intently stringing some beads. The room was full of orange chairs circa 1970.
Last weekend St. Jude had a postdoc appreciation day at Cedar Hill Farms. After a morning of watching Troy play in the stake softball tournament we drove down to Hernando, MS for a day of family fun and a free meal. There was a pretty pathetic corn maze:
As well as a super lame hay maze. Chase wouldn't go in it at all but would take a picture with me.
Everything that day was free so the boys rode ponies. Well, Seth and Ian rode because Chase is afraid of everything.
I take that back. Chase loved the chickens. It's like I passed on my love of chickens down through my genes.
Seth helped out at the pig races which were announced by one of the most southern sounding young women I've ever heard.

There was a tractor ride on a tractor made to look like a train.
And of course, pumpkins. We were pretty tired by the end so we just bought them in the barn instead of going back out to the patch.
Riding back to our car we sat across from a little boy from Ian's class. Ian thought it was so cool to see a friend from school.
And last but not least, Ian had his first field trip. Troy went along as a chaperone to a farm with a ton of kindergarteners and I stayed home jealous. He's got a second job teaching a night class and I can't have the car those days or he'd never get home from ghetto south Memphis. Anyway, since I wasn't there personally I just have pictures. Troy said Ian had a permanent grin on his face.

He fed a lamb
and some goats,
visited the pumkin patch,

rode another pony,
and milked a goat, among other things, including learning what farmers do when animals poop ("They rake it up and throw it over the fence.")
My little shy guy loves school.

And that's all. Now we're gearing up for Halloween. I've made Seth Harry Potter robes and it looks like I'll be making robes for Ian too since he's decided he wants to dress up like Draco Malfoy. They're trying to convice Chase to be Cedric Diggory but he's convinced that he's got to be Super Why.

Surprise Mail

2011-08-08T16:43:00.002-05:00

When I went out to check the mail today I found a package with these babies in it:
Now, I request samples of things often but I'm pretty sure I didn't ask for these. Anybody want to fess up for trying to make me think this is a sign?

Two hours later...

2011-08-02T13:35:00.001-05:00

...and my older boys are registered for school. They start next week. What will Chase and I do all day?

Kindermat Cover

2011-07-28T14:23:00.003-05:00

The last month of my life has been devoted to getting ready for school. Not only did I have to come up with the funds for all of Seth's supplies (Memphis City Schools provides a lengthy list of what they won't be providing) but Ian's as well. Because he's starting kindergarten. My little Ian, in school. Sigh. Anyway, on his list was a kindermat and of course the one we had to buy for Seth when we moved here wasn't the right size. My friend Shauna asked if I'd make a cover for her son's mat and in return she'd take Ian to Hobby Lobby to pick out fabric for his own.

I looked around for a good tutorial but ended up trying to copy one that a local company makes. It turned out better than I thought and looking at it makes me happy. It's just a long piece of fabric with pockets to slide over each end so it won't slip off. Then I sewed bias tape along the length to make it cuter. I pretty much love sewing.

Here it is on the mat. The green is what I made for Ian's buddy.

And see how nicely it folds up? I wasn't sure what Ian would pick, especially since the backpack he chose was covered in words like "Slime" and "Gross" and "Goo", so when he came home with fabric covered with the 50 states and their capitals I was relieved. He's a quirky little guy.

Installment 5

2011-07-19T08:11:00.005-05:00

I'm finishing this. Today. I'm ready to move on with my life, you know? So what would have been three posts is now one. You've been warned.

We left Tulare with plans to drive as far as Flagstaff. We thought maybe we'd stop in Calico Ghost town and with Keith and Emma's recommendation we had to do it. I've driven by the sign along I-15 more times than I can remember but never stopped to check it out. After visiting, I wish I'd stopped by every time.

It's a ghost town (clearly) where silver was once mined. It has lots of old buildings and tons of character. It was actually a very beautiful area as well. Here are my boys enjoying the scenery from the edge of the parking lot. The parking lot which was totally full, much to my surprise.
Now, if you're planning to visit, make sure there's a group of Koreans on a tour bus. As we walked up an older Korean couple just kept staring at us. Then they rushed up and grabbed Ian to take a picture with him. Ian was a little too shy to get so personal so quickly but Seth didn't mind at all. In fact, our whole family took a picture with these people. Troy said in Korea that they LOVE little blond kids. We've experienced this at restaurants before. He also said they don't have any awkward feelings about taking random pictures with people they don't know. Afterward Troy broke out his mad Korean skills from his mission and chatted with the man a little. It was a super cool beginning to our visit. I kind of wish we'd taken a picture with them but the whole experience was so bizarre and funny that I wasn't thinking right.

We wondered through as many little shops as we had time for and a nice ranger with a cool cowboy mustache stopped us and shared cool little facts with us and joked with the boys. Yet another place I'd like to visit again and I know I'm not alone in that feeling.

Ian and Chase

Us in "jail"
The old hotel
We eventually had to leave because our hotel in Flagstaff was already booked. We got there around dinner and found a little diner downtown to eat at. Looking for a place to park we passed some weird hippie guys playing drums and dancing around. I didn't know Flagstaff was that kind of place. It was so much cleaner than Berkeley, which is the only other place I've been with that kind of vibe.

The next morning we were off to Amarillo. On the way to CA we ran out of time to visit the Petrified Forest so our plan for the day was to go there. As we drove along Route 66 we passed the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ. Of course we stopped for pictures. They even had an old "Mater" parked in front of a Wigwam. Quite possibly the coolest thing my kids have ever seen.

It took a while to get to where we were going and we could see the smoke from the wildfire in the distance but we finally got there. My initial reaction getting out of the van was that is was so quiet. The park is so far from roads and people that all you heard was silence. And then my kids started talking and they quickly made up for any lack of sound.

We did the Junior Ranger program again and wandered around looking at the petrified wood after listening to a ranger talk. I didn't realize it would be so colorful. We ended up staying longer than planned because it was so neat.

The drive back to the interstate took us through the Painted Desert. I think this trip was the first time I saw how beautiful the desert could be.

This time Chee's Navajo Fry Bread was open in Arizona and we stopped for a couple. Troy was very happy.

As we drove through New Mexico the wildfire smoke got pretty bad. I took a picture of a mountain. Kind of hard to see, huh?

I was grateful Taryn's wedding was before this happened because it wouldn't have been nearly as nice to be married outside surrounded by smoke. While in Albuquerque we stopped back at Petroglyph National Monument to pick up Junior Ranger books for the boys to do once we got home. It seemed a shame to not let them do it and we had a lot of fun talking about the park once we were back.

Anyway, it was late and dark by the time we got to Amarillo but fortunately the hotel made up for it. The rooms were nicer than what we were used to on the trip and they had a stellar breakfast. Seth actually cried when we had to leave. He really liked the pool. It also turns out he and Ian like watching "Chopped" too because we stayed up way too late watching it.

The day we left was the day Seth got sick. He kept complaining that his stomach hurt and combined with Chase's general badness (he was so over travelling at that point) that I was ready to go home. We decided to spend the night in Fort Smith, AR. So we start driving. And after a while Ian had to go to the bathroom but we couldn't pull off to the side because Oklahoma decided to do all its construction work that day. Finally we got to a gas station. As we're getting Ian out, Seth decided he was going to throw up. Troy pulled him out of the back because at this point the inside of the van is a wreck. Seth proceeded to throw up all over the ground and his feet. But let's not forget Ian who still needed to go to the bathroom. I rushed and gave him an empty water bottle to pee in. He loves peeing like that. So I'm sitting in the car, watching one kid puking in the parking lot and the other's little naked bum peeing in a bottle. It was all kind of funny until Ian started crying about accidentally peeing on his pillow pet because his "penis started moving" and then having to crawl to the back to clean it up. Kids are great.

Finally we got to Fort Smith. We were going to go out to dinner since most of the drive we ate sandwiches as we drove. Seth wasn't up to it though so we ate Wendy's in our room. The next morning we took a super quick dip in the pool and headed off to Fort Smith, a national historic place with yet another Junior Ranger program.

Arkansas was HOT! We'd been spoiled in Tulare but now we were back home and home was welcoming us back the only way it knew how. I wasn't sure what the fort was used for prior to going or if I'd even like it. Once again, it was awesome and I wouldn't mind visiting again. Fort Smith is actually where the movie "True Grit" is based.

We saw the jail and the gallows. A lot of people were hung in Fort Smith. We also visited the commissary and saw where the Trail of Tears began. The museum had a really nice exhibit about the area and its involvement in the Civil War and all the things that happened on the edge of Indian Territory.
Through it all our little Seth was a trooper. You could tell he didn't feel well but he complained very little and I think he enjoyed it almost as much as if he were well.
And then we were back in the car. At this point I was grouchy and just wanted to go home. When we finally saw the city...
....our car exploded in cheers! And walking into my super clean house I was glad I did all that work in between tornado sirens before we left.

Overall, the trip was a success. The kids travelled well, Troy and I never argued and the van ran like a dream. We easily saved $1000 and made some amazing memories. While I'd rather not drive quite so far again soon, we are planning more trips for the future because being together was really just a lot of fun.

And I'm done.

It's Finally Finished!!

2011-07-11T10:09:00.005-05:00

I started this pillow a while back to give to a friend but Troy liked it so much I decided to keep it. Good thing too because it's got some problems but overall I'm very happy with it.

It's based on this pillow here that I found on etsy but couldn't afford. Next time I'll make my birdies a little smaller and use a larger insert and maybe I'll actually give it to the intended recipient :)

Next on my to-do list (besides clean my super messy house) is this rocking chair. I found it one morning on my walk/jog and made Troy drive back and get it for me. He's a good man. You can tell the chair's been exposed to the elements for quite a while but the wood is solid and I think some sanding and some paint will make it just about perfect. Unfortunately it's way too hot to even think about starting it any time soon but it's day will come.

Installment 4

2011-07-06T16:16:00.005-05:00

Finally! Our computer is back and I can finish recording our trip. I'm starting to forget things now that it's been a month since we've been back.

During our time in CA we visited Yosemite. It was my first time there, which is sad because it's only a couple of hours north of where I grew up. It was also my parents' first time which is even more sad.

The scenery was breathtaking! Everywhere I looked it was just too beautiful to be real. Of course we picked a day to go when it was raining/hailing/snowing but when the sun was out it was fantastic. The plan was to see as much as we could but with a group as large as we had it just wasn't meant to be. We ended up wondering through the visitor's center, listening to a Ranger talk (for the boys' Junior Ranger badges) and "hiking" to Lower Yosemite Falls. It's hard to call a paved path a hike. Before we even started our walk for the hike my dad decided he was done with it all and hopped on a bus back to the cars. Not much of a walker. He rode that bus for a hour and a half and pretty much saw the whole park. I wish we'd had time to do that as well as hiked more. We'll definitely be returning with more time.

This is the gang after exiting the tunnel into the park. It was soooo pretty!

We had lunch at the cars since all the picnic areas seemed to be full. My aunt put down the seat in her car and the kids ate there. Notice the Cheetos? Definitely glad it was Carol's car and not mine :)
Troy and I at the Lower Falls
My boys in a tree
I think one of the best parts of the day was introducing the kids to the Junior Ranger program. Seth, Ian and my sister were given activity booklets to complete while in the park to earn badges. If you know me, you know it's totally the kind of thing I would have done. I feel very lucky that my kids like that kind of thing too.

Here they are with their official gear. Notice the awe on Chase's face.

The day ended too quickly and back to Tulare we went.

The weekend we were there was my Aunt Debbie's birthday and a bunch of family came to my mom's to eat. My family is crazy when they get together and listening to them pick on each other was a lot of fun. Little Chase had yet another long day and curled up on his Tia and went right to sleep.
Then there was more time outside playing and getting filthy and church that Sunday. The last time we were there Chase was still having a hard time with nursery. Thankfully he's grown out of that. It turns out my husband has a hard time with Elder's Quorum because he opted to go out to the car and read Lord of the Rings.

It was during this week that Troy went to have Korean food in Fresno with his old roommate. While there he got a text from Emma saying she and Keith had gotten hitched in Vegas. I was completely shocked and so happy for them. Since the wedding wasn't planned there wasn't a reception- or so they thought. They brought some cupcakes to share with us and together with the cups and sparkling cider my mom had from my cousin's recent marriage we had quite a little party. The Seaton house is always full of surprises.

The happy couple

And finally, my post about CA wouldn't be complete without Chase's quilt. My mom has made a quilt for all three boys and was trying to get Chase's done before we got there. She enlisted my Aunt Carol's help and to work they went. Now Carol can make a quilt like nobody's business. She pops them right out and they're beautiful. My mom's are also beautiful but take longer. Together they made Chase's and I got to sit and listen to them argue as they finished it. Hilarious. And here it is.

And just like that it was time to leave. We were only there for a week which really wasn't enough time but Troy's gotta work so off we went, yet again. I love visiting my family and watching the boys run around in the same places I did growing up. I especially love seeing them with my parents and sister and wish it didn't have to be a once-a-year kind of thing. Sigh.

Next installment: On to Flagstaff

Installment 3

2011-06-21T08:56:00.003-05:00

Driving from Albuquerque to Tulare would have taken us about 13 hours. That would be without kids and stops and that adds tons of time. We decided to stop in Vegas. The boys could see the lights on the strip and we'd have some cheap food and life would be good. That was the plan leaving Memphis. What really happened was we went to breakfast with Keith and Emma for Keith's birthday, had a very nice time and left later than planned. Road trips have to be flexible, especially when your awesome Australian friends are around and you get a chance to eat at the Village Inn. You're probably thinking, "Australians are great but what's so cool about the Village Inn?" That's where Troy and I went out for pie when we were first married and too poor for full restaurant meals. Nostalgia, you know?

Anyway, breakfast was great and we set off to Vegas. Driving through the rest of New Mexico was very nice. Then we got to Arizona. It was so windy! At one point a highway patrol officer actually got out in the middle of the highway to pace the cars. We could see truck trailers swaying. The worst were people on motorcycles. One woman in particular was holding her face. Troy thought she was trying to keep her helmet on but I think she didn't want to watch herself die. It was very, very scary but eventually we got up the mountain in Flagstaff and the wind died down and the drive was back to normal.

We almost stopped at the Hoover Dam but it was close to dinner and I'm pretty sure I was being grouchy. We checked in to our hotel and had Jack in the Box for dinner. I love that place and our closest in Nashville so of course I haven't gone in a while. We loaded the boys up to show them the strip all lit up at night. I thought it would be really cool because I remember my family doing it with me and loving it. Well, that wasn't really how it went for us. There were way too many people out for us to park and walk. Ian couldn't see anything we tried to show him and Seth was very grouchy with Ian because he couldn't see anything. Eventually we gave up and went back to the hotel. Seth and Chase were asleep before we got to I-15 but Ian refused to sleep. He does this amazing thing where he asks a question and then finds a way to turn every answer you give him into another question. Picture 30 minutes of that and you have our ride home.

We decided to sleep in the next morning and try the Strip again during the day. So much better. It was still cool(ish) outside and very few people were out walking. We took pictures and had a nice little walk.

Then it was on to Tulare. Did I mention that we were leaving Vegas on Memorial Day? Well, that's when we left and traffic was very bad several times on our way. We still made pretty good time and made it to Tulare by dinner. Chase is afraid of dogs, even my mom's little chihuahuas, so he started screaming about it right off. Seth and Ian pretty much stayed outside with my sister most of the time. They came in each day filthy so they had a great time. Troy spent a lot of time sleeping because he wasn't feeling well and I watched a lot of Man vs. Food. I love that show! That's pretty much it until we went to Yosemite but I think I'll stop now and save that and the rest of our time in Tulare for my next installment.

Installment 2

2011-06-20T08:55:00.006-05:00

Well, it turns out I'm an even worse blogger than I first thought. According to my planner I should be done writing about our trip so that I could now write about picking peaches and blackberries and the fun we had doing that. One day.

So on to installment 2. After our yummy breakfast we drove back down that gravel road and made our way to Albuquerque to attend Taryn's wedding. This time driving was less relaxed because we needed to be there in time to make in to her Cowboy Dinner that night. We had to finish driving through Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle and half on New Mexico in 8-9 hours. It turns out that states in the west are far too large. As a side note, I found out on this trip that Troy's always had a secret dream to go to OK and that he loves it. You should have seen him when we passed the "Home of Carrie Underwood" sign in Checotah. We also got to hear Aunt Faye talk about her kids growing up with Toby Keith. Oklahoma really is a great place.

Anyway, eventually we crossed into Texas and took a picture.
That area of TX really wasn't much to look at. There also weren't really any places to stop. The previous day we stopped at a pretty little shaded rest area in Arkansas for lunch. Second day we ended up here:

The Devil's Rope Museum in McLean, TX. We'd just given up and had to have lunch somewhere. It was so hot and dry and bright. We sat in the parking lot and made up some sandwiches. When we went in to use the restroom we were told we could go through the museum for free so of course we did. It was actually really cool. The Route 66 area had a little soda shop, neon signs and information about the old road. The devil's rope area was devoted to the history of barbed wire and cowboy kinds of things. We saw barbed wire statues, how they made barbed wire, cattle brands, etc. It was definitely one of those unexpected adventures you hope to have on epic road trips.

To top it off, on the way out of town we came across a little restored gas station on the side of the road from the 1920s. The whole experience was so random and I loved it.

We arrived at our ghetto hotel in time to change for Taryn's Cowboy Dinner/rehearsal dinner. I wish I'd taken some pictures. The room was decorated with a Western theme- mason jars for glasses, bandannas, metal milk cans displaying food on the buffet tables, the works. The food was amazing and it was so nice to see Taryn and Nate again and visit with Emma, Keith and the Tulare folk who'd come out to the wedding as well. We had had a long day of travel and a long evening of eating and visiting and poor little Chase eventually could take no more. He actually fell asleep standing up beside the bed when we got back to the hotel.

Since the wedding wasn't until the evening we decided to go the Petroglyph National Park the next morning and Emma and Keith joined us. I didn't really know what it was going into it, just that it seemed like an appropriate thing to do. You see, I've decided to become one of those parents who drag their kids around to National Parks and historic sites whenever the chance presents itself. It was a cool place to visit. Right off the bat we saw a roadrunner. We were told there were three paths to hike, two easy and one a little harder. Not looking at a map we ended up doing the hardest one first. We saw lots of petroglyphs and saw a nice view from near the top. Not that I went all the way up because I could see myself or one of my kids tumbling down but we went up pretty far. Keith was the most adventurous and made his was all the way up. Emma stayed with us as she'd forgotten to bring tennis shoes.

The boys and Mr. Keith

We dove to the easier trails where the boys walked past a rattlesnake. Luckily Keith spotted it (making his day) and we safely walked the boys back around it. It kind of scared me to death. Troy of course thought it was no big deal.

My kids loved Miss Emma and Mr. Keith. They loved talking to them and walking with them. Ian couldn't understand their accents at first but then again, neither could I back in the day when I first met Emma. I think he got over it sooner than I did.

We went back the the hotel, watched some soccer (a new favorite for the kids) and got ready for the wedding. It was wonderful. The dress Taryn's mom made her was beautiful and looked lovely blowing in the wind. I feel so grateful that she thought to invite me in spite of not seeing each other in so long and I'm even more grateful that we were able to go. She's the girl who first introduced me the LDS church and encouraged me to attend with her. If it weren't for Taryn I would have never gone to BYU and met Troy and had my beautiful little boys. I kind of owe her a lot.

After the wonderful dinner the night before I should have expected an equally wonderful reception but even still it was better than I'd imagined. We were seated at a table with Keith, Emma, one of Taryn's sisters, one of my old Sunday school teachers and the mother of a boy I knew from high school so there wasn't any of those uncomfortable feelings you get around people you don't know. The older women at the table did make Keith a little uncomfortable though. They were trying very hard to get the poor guy drunk. I guess that's what people do who don't drink, myself excepted.

Dinner was pretty fancy and sweet Taryn arranged for all the kids there that night to get a kids dinner. Being at a Hyatt resort it was of course more than just dinner. While the boys waited they were given little cardboard trucks full of goodies to play with.

There was great music and lots of dancing. Seth even asked Miss Emma to go out on the floor with him while Troy and I danced.

Me, Taryn and Emma. I look like a midget.

It may have been the best wedding I've ever attended (excluding my own). Poor Chase had another long day but luckily fell asleep across a couple of chairs so we could continue enjoying the night.

I wasn't sure how I'd feel about Albuquerque. It seemed to me that it would be just another city in the desert. I actually found it to be very beautiful and we made some pretty awesome memories together there as a family.

And there you have the second leg of our trip. Next up: California.

Epic Road Trip: Installment 1

2011-06-14T09:37:00.010-05:00

On Thursday we returned from what I termed "Epic Road Trip 2011." My best friend from high school had invited me to her wedding in Albuquerque and we were planning on driving to California to visit my family this summer so I decided we should put the two together and have an adventure. My sweet husband went along with my plan, despite his fear of being in a car with his kids for so many days. It ended up being an incredible vacation and talking to Troy you'd think it was all his idea :) I had plans to blog about it right away but it quickly became a daunting task. Here are the stats:

Miles: about 4600

Cost: Less than 5 plane tickets plus a rental car. I'd rather not say more than that because the amount still makes me sick to my stomach, regardless of any savings.

Time: 14 days, 12 hours

Could you blog all that in one post? I think not. Hence the installments. I'm thinking there will be eight or nine total.

We left Memphis May 26th. Seth finished his first grade year the day before and Troy was gone the week prior to our trip. The night before, when I had plans to mostly pack up the van, we were under a tornado warning. So amid the sirens I was frantically doing all that I could while keeping an eye on the local weather to see just how close I needed to be to our "safe room." Awesome I know. By the time we went to bed the storm had passed and we were able to set off on our trip without a storm in front of us.

That first day was probably the most relaxed of the trip. We only had to drive about 8 hours to Oklahoma City. We had a hotel booked and were planning on visiting my great aunt and uncle who live there. We had a picnic lunch at a rest area and kicked around a soccer ball. Just before arriving at Uncle Bill and Aunt Faye's (or Aunt Bill and Uncle Faye as Ian was likely to call them) I called them up and found out they were expecting us to stay with them. I wish we'd known that before prepaying for a room that night. Oh well. It ended up being for the best because the boys adored them.

If you've never been to Oklahoma City, you should know that it takes very little time to leave the city and be in the country. Driving to their home we saw large properties and enormous homes. We kept driving and driving and driving and all of a sudden it was time to turn on a primarily gravel road. My ever-sarcastic husband's response, "Of course your family would live on a dirt road." At the very end was their home with a large, tree covered yard, an old dog and a garage with old cars. They even had a creek running through the back with an awesome bridge they made. The place was perfect. The best part- a storm cellar. A real storm cellar! Having tornadoes has made the boys dream of having such a luxury. It was the first place they wanted to go when we got out of the car.

While there we sat on the back porch and talked, watched Westerns with Uncle Bill and then they took us out to dinner. Aunt Faye made us a wonderful breakfast (toast, gravy, eggs and bacon) before we left. Seth and Ian both said they'd rather stay there than continue on our trip. It really was great and I hope to get the chance to visit with them again. Despite not having seen them in oh, 20 years or so, they made us feel like no time had passed at all.

Lunch in Arkansas
The storm cellar!
Ian loved Sport
Dinner at Perry's Restaurant
Our kind hosts

Next installment: Taryn's Wedding and Albuquerque. You can hardly wait, I'm sure.

A Birthday and Family Pictures

2011-04-24T14:18:00.016-05:00

Happy birthday Ian! Today my little guy is five. It feels like just yesterday that he was born. I don't know where the years have gone. He's such a sweet boy and the peacemaker of our family. I sure love him and all his crazy new words and ideas. He was born the day before my anniversary and came too quickly for an epidural. From the beginning he's liked doing the unexpected. When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted he said strawberry with strawberry frosting...and Blue Bell ice cream. It reminded me of the first cake I ever made for my Grandpa Dale. It was strawberry with strawberry frosting too. I'm not so sure it's Ian's favorite but he knew it would be different than what Seth will pick. His favorite pass time is to do the opposite of Seth, no matter what, and I'd say his second favorite is to love on his baby brother in a very violent kind of way. In his five short years he's had bleached sprayed at his face, choked on a hot dog, been trapped underwater by a swimming tube and almost been crushed by a poorly placed TV. I won't even get into all the falling he's done because of his natural clumsiness (I have no idea where he got that). I sure feel lucky he's made it through so many mishaps because I don't know what I'd do without him.

We recently took family pictures. Effie Clayton is a genius. She took plain old, regular us and made us look awesome. I feel vain putting up so many but I just love them.

Seth Chase

My Boys
Troy thinks they look like little, unloved, well-dressed homeless kids. I just think it's great.

Big boys
Us, in honor of our eighth anniversary which we'll celebrate tomorrow.
Family shots

This one is for Britt.

After having pictures taken by Heidi, Rebekah and Effie I can say for sure I'm a fan of the outdoor shot.

Phases

2011-04-01T14:58:00.004-05:00

We all go through phases. Golf, scrap booking, exercise, laying out, red hair...all phases I've experienced and quit. The red hair was pretty cool though :) Recently I've been trying to teach myself to play the keyboard (Hymns Made Easy, yeah baby!) and sew. I'm not sure sewing is really a phase because it's in my blood and I really want to keep at the keyboarding because it makes me happy. Enter new phase- couponing! Isn't it fun that coupon has been turned into a verb? I have a couple of cousins who are incredible at it and use thekrazycouponlady.com as their guide. I want to be like them. I want to save money but not be crazy. This week I decided to try it out.

You like the two boxes of Zantac and a bottle of Tums? Can you tell I've had an ulcer? Total price about $17. Not bad for my first try. Usually we buy generic everything except bar soap and body wash since we have some pretty sensitive skin in our house. Those two items alone are around $13 when we buy them at Walmart so I got the other 9 items for about $4 and I'm one step ahead for Easter basket candy. So far I haven't found anything to beat my Aldi for grocery prices but it could happen. New phases are awesome!

Grits

2011-03-29T08:25:00.002-05:00

I had them with breakfast and they were amazing. Living in the south is amazing. If you come visit me I'll make you some.

Seth

2011-03-26T18:35:00.003-05:00

Seth is a funny boy. Last week we went to the art fair at his school. I was chatting with his teacher and she said something along those lines to me. Then she leaned over and said, "And he's so innocent." She went on to say that at times she has to guide conversations away from certain topics but not with my boy. I think that may be one of the nicest compliments I've ever heard about my kids. People have said the same thing about my sister and I know I was when I was young. I probably still am in a lot of ways. I hope he's able to keep that quality in today's not-so-innocent schools.

While at the art fair we had the opportunity to listen to the 4th and 5th graders play music for us as we perused the art. Ambiance, you know? They were awful. Really, really bad. Even so, the pride on their faces had me teary-eyed and the boys thought it was cool they could recognize the songs. I'm so glad I've got kids in school and that I can go to these kinds of things.

Since I'm talking about Seth I guess I should mention what he said as we brought dinner to the table tonight..."Casserole again?" You'd think he'd be used to it by now :)

The World is Mine!

2011-03-22T09:07:00.002-05:00

That's what the insert that came with my passport said anyway. Emma and Keith, you better watch out. I might just show up on your doorstep :)

What we've been up to

2011-03-16T10:50:00.004-05:00

I am in love with Down East Basics skirts. They are super cute. Do I have any? No. They cost our weekly grocery budget- well, it's possible that I'm exaggerating but they are kind of expensive for someone as thrifty as I am. And by thrifty I mean cheap. So I decided to get a pattern and make one. I won't bore you with the details but after buying and altering a pattern, making the skirt and then having to alter it because it looked like a tent I ended up with this:
I really like it. Maybe one day the cardigan I want to wear with it will go on sale and I can wear them together and I will be so happy. It wasn't difficult and I'd like to make more skirts but patterns aren't cheap. Then I found the most amazing book. It's called Sew What! Skirts and it goes through drafting patterns. Thanks to it I have three patterns now and I'm itching to sew.

This week is Spring Break. Do you remember Spring Break being called Easter Vacation and being the week before Easter? I do. Anyway, Monday I asked the boys if they wanted to get dressed and they said no so we had a PJ day. Here they are playing basketball in the afternoon, very happy in their pajamas. Basketball's getting to be pretty big around here now that March Madness is starting. Troy brought home brackets for all of us except Chase to fill out. For all I know Chase has one too.

Today the boys and I made gummy candy. Seth got a kit for Christmas just before we moved here. It was put away as we unpacked and I recently found it and thought it would be fun to try out. Here are the gummies we made today.

Not very appealing but what do you expect when they don't give you a pack of red dye. It's a sour gummy kit and the boys picked sour watermelon as today's flvor. All three helped me measure and mix. When it came time to try them out I got this:

Seth told me you just had to swallow it quickly and poor Ian was really trying but they were soooo sour and kind of gross. Chase tried hard too. This is what he looked like....

...before he spit it out on the kitchen floor. It was fun though to do a little project. And nasty. Seriously disgusting.

Also, Seth loves the Beatles. At this moment he's singing along with Baby You Can Drive My Car. It makes me happy.

Hot Dogs

2011-03-09T07:29:00.002-06:00

Since Ian almost died choking on a hot dog at a baseball game we don't really eat them anymore, which is why this story is extra funny to me. I'll set the stage: I bought a pork tenderloin on sale and was pretty excited. We pretty much just eat chicken and ground beef since I can stretch them so far for so little. So I have this tenderloin and I find an awesome spicy maple galze for it and I'm feeling pretty cool. I place the plate in front of Chase and what does he say? Hot dog! I give my kid real meat and he says hot dog? Troy and I laughed so hard.

Memphis City schools are now merging with the county. I've been listening to people give reasons why they voted for it. A lot of it sounded like this- I don't really know what it is I'm voting for but I'm going to vote yes. Are you serious? If you don't know what you're voting for maybe you should find out first. Nothing's better than voting ignorantly. I'm (or was since it's done now) personally opposed to the merger primarily because there's no plan. It seemed to me, and maybe I don't know anything, the the school board couldn't deal with what they had so they just decided to dump the problem on someone else. That's not fair for Shelby County. However ineffective they were as a board, they somehow figured out how to get people to vote for them last night. It makes my blood boil. Maybe merging will be good in the long run but the way they went about it seemed dirty to me. And now I'm done ranting.

A Conversation With Seth

2011-02-20T21:05:00.002-06:00

Our kids are an endless source of laughs and unexpected conversation. Yesterday afternoon there was almost a shooting on our street. We were away but when we came home the three police cars and nosy neighbors were still hanging around. Fortunately the kid's aunt legally carries and came out packing heat and prevented the shooting by scaring away the kid who was about to shoot her nephew.

Yesterday evening we were getting ready to leave the house and three young men were hanging around on a neighbors porch. The kids did not belong there so we got nervous about leaving and called the police. While Sarah was in the house, Seth and I had a little talk; it went like this:

Seth: Dad, we should just move.

Troy: No, everything is fine. Memphis is a dangerous city but we live in one of the safest neighborhoods.

Seth: Safe?! Safe?! Two guns dad?! We've seen two guns! How can that be safe?!

Troy: Well, things happen in every city. Memphis is dangerous.

Seth: That's because everybody likes Justin Bieber. Why don't we just move to Utah?

Well, I didn't know what to say to that. I didn't know which was more unbelievable - the fact that being a Justin Bieber fan makes you a hardened Memphis criminal or the notion that we might want to move to Utah. I'll take the occasional violent crime in Memphis from the Justin Bieber hoodlums over Utah anyday.

Soothie Pacifier Clips

2011-02-17T11:20:00.003-06:00

The Walnut Grove birth rate rivals that of Westland with one glaring difference- baby showers for said births. Every mom here gets a shower, even if it's a diaper and wipe kind of affair. I've only gone to a handful because I don't know all the moms and sometimes it just doesn't work with our schedule. I've been very impressed with the beautiful handmade gifts that are given. Most are simple and inspired me to give making gifts a try.

For my friend Heather I made a Britt Peterson-style hooded towel. It was easy and fun and it made me feel good giving it to her. For the next shower I'm attending I made these:
Soothie pacifier clips! The thin ribbon on the end makes it possible to loop through the little holes on the pacifier (that's what's supposed to happen anyway). I read how someone made them and thought I could handle that, especially since I had some fabric laying around- can you believe that? I have random scraps now! It's awesome! Anyway, I followed the instructions and made two, decided I didn't like them, cut out the clips and did it again my own way. It was so easy that sacrificing the first two didn't give me a complex and I can see myself making more in the future. Here's how I made them in case you care:
You'll need

a 2 3/4" x 11" rectangle of fabric
suspender clip
8" thin ribbon

Fold fabric in half lengthwise right sides facing.
Sew 1/4" seam along long edge.
Turn right side out and press. The seam can be in the middle or at the edge.
Turn ends under 1/4" and press.
Fold ribbon in half and insert at one end (about 1/2") and stitch in place. We'll call this seam A. I went over and back a couple of times. Sew other end 1/4" from edge. We'll call this seam B.
Insert clip at the B end and fold fabric under about 1 1/2". Pin and sew as close to the clip as you can. Sew over the B seam to keep the fold you made flat.

Super easy. Makes me want a baby so I can make a few for myself.

My Favorite Valentine EVER!

2011-02-10T16:53:00.001-06:00

Charles Darwin on a Valentine? Doesn't get any better than that!

I'm So Crafty

2011-01-31T09:00:00.003-06:00

Well, not compared to cool people like Heidi but I'm working on it. For Christmas I embellished a canvas tote for my sister-in-law. Pretend the flowers on this are brown, blue and white and that Martha used ribbon instead in raffia because she was cheap. Then you'd have mine. I wish I'd taken a picture of it because it was a lot of work. Not hard though, just time consuming.
But this, this is what I'm currently in love with. With money from Christmas I bought myself a new sewing machine. It's not fancy but I can't justify spending any more than I did until I really get the hang of it. It's still pretty beautiful to me.

I sewed back in my 4-H days but it turns out that was a long time ago and I'm kind of rusty. I have managed to finish a quilt top my aunt sent for me a few years back when I had a semi-working machine. I plan on sending it to her to quilt on her gigantic quilting machine and I'm really excited about that. I also made Valentine slipcovers for the pillows in my living room. I made them like envelopes so I could slip the pillows in and I didn't overlap the fabric enough in the back so you can kind of see the pillows but I feel pretty good about them anyway. And they're pink which I don't get much of in my home.

What I'm most excited about is trying to imitate all the cool things that real crafty people make. Like the hooded towels Britt would bring people when they had a new baby. Using Chase's as a guide I made one to give to a friend who's having a baby girl soon:

If I were her I wouldn't look at the seams very closely but she's sweet and wouldn't mention it even if she did :) Now I just need the money to purchase supplies for all the great ideas I've found....

Utah

2011-01-19T09:00:00.004-06:00

I will begin this post by saying I LOVED our trip to Utah. I was reminded left and right of reasons I'd rather not live there, which is a personal opinion and I pass no judgement on those who choose to do so, but I loved visiting. I will also say that I should have done this sooner because I've probably already forgotten things including how I'd planned to format this post. It's also going to be long so good luck.

First of all, our trip was only possible because Troy was invited to present a poster and to give a talk at a kind of prestigious scientific meeting. He's so smart. He received a scholarship to attend the meeting and had money in his personal development account which meant I could go along and only pay airfare. Sweet. His parents agreed to drive down and stay with our kids while we were gone. They got here two days after my parents left so the boys had a lot of grandparent time this last month. I think we're finally getting back in our old routine.

While in Utah we played the tourist. We walked around temple square and I finally went inside the tabernacle. It was sooo cold that we didn't stay out very long. We also went to the Church History Museum. Can I just say that being at a museum without children makes for a better learning experience? I actually got to read about what I was seeing.

There was a bunk bed inside to show what it was like to sleep on the ships that came from Europe. So we tried one out.

I also got to see four great friends on my visit. First was Danny and Darcie. We were with them a lot the first couple days. I got to meet Allen and see how big Mary and Derrick have gotten. We had lunch at The Pie in South Jordan and I will say it's some of the best pizza I've ever had. And Mary started headbanging to the music while we were eating which made it even better. We played Danny's new game, Small World, at Darcie's mom's house and it was just like the good old days. I sure miss those guys. Darcie and I had dinner at Olive Garden and came back to the Super 8 to hang out. Yes, we stayed at Super 8. No, it's not the coolest place to stay but we were trying to stretch Troy's money as far as possible. He could have stayed at the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird for a meager $800 but opted to stay in South Jordan so I could come too.

Me and Darcie. I think look pretty cute for having three kids.

The Sunday I was there I visited my old roommate Katie. There wasn't much we could do since it was Sunday but we did make fun of people and things, just like when we were at BYU. I met Katie my sophomore year. She was a freshman and new to our apartment and had a hard time at first. She slept beside me several nights until she got used to things. I got to meet her funny little girl and see her new baby. It was great.

Me and my Katie.

My room roommate (as in we shared a room) was going to come to Katie's but couldn't make it that day. Jill invited us over Monday night for dinner. She is a great cook! We had pizza and an awesome free form apple tart. They had a Wii and Troy played with her husband which I think was good for them. They had to listen to us tell a lot of old stories. I actually played a little too and kicked butt at a fencing game. It's actually my true calling in life and I'm thinking of pursuing it once the boys are grown. It was great to see Jill's little boy. It gave me the fix I needed until I got back to my own :)

Jill!

Remember how I said we stayed at a cheap Super 8? Well, Monday morning Troy woke me up and told me to pack my bags. He'd booked a bed and breakfast for our last two nights. I didn't believe him because I didn't think it was possible for him to keep a secret like that. He took me to the Parrish Place Bed and Breakfast and it was great! Turns out Jill and Austin had stayed there before too. It was in a home built in 1890 and was beautiful.

They brought us a breakfast in a basket in the mornings full of good things. Yogurt, granola, milk, OJ, muffins, fruit, hot chocolate. I could eat like that every day. I feel like I have because my pants are so tight after the holidays but that's a different story altogether. Looks like we'll be joining the Y again :)

The room we stayed in was in the attic. There was a cool little sitting room where we had breakfast, a cute little window seat and a huge tub. The owners were really nice and if we're ever in Utah again without kids I'd love to stay there.The day before we left we went down to Provo. That was actually the reason we went in the first place. We haven't been back since graduating and wanted to see it again. First is a random house that I passed every day my third year that I think Mike and Kari lived in. It was white back then.

We tried to get there early enough to go to a class taught by a professor we loved. We didn't make it in time. I will say I love being a visitor at BYU. There was plenty of visitor parking and it didn't cost a dime. I hated having to go to OSU for those very reasons. We walked around, had a wrap, fresh bread and honey butter at the CougarEat and spent tons of money on the bookstore. The boys each got a shirt. Ian tried to cut the tag out of his while wearing it when we got home and cut the collar and stretched out the neck which I thought was great.

We found Dr. Johnson, our virology professor, and he let us come to another class he taught that day. It was small (only 6 students) and we loved it! He gave Troy chanced to talk about flu during the class which totally fed Troy's ego and it was awesome.

The Museum of Art was having an exhibit on Carl Bloch so we went to that. It was incredible. They had five of his altar pieces on display and tons of other paintings and prints. I love that museum. I was a custodian there forever, it's where I first met Henry Patterson and they have great exhibits. I love BYU. We ran into a kid from Troy's Sunday school class and took him and his rommate to Sam Hawk that night for Korean food. They have the best Korean food! I don't think Michael or his roomie were big fans but who's going to complain when someone offers you a free meal. Yum.

That's all, I think. I loved going on a trip alone with Troy. It made me remember how much I like him and how much fun he is to be around. It's easy to forget during the chaos of everyday life but one day it'll be just us again and it's good to know I'll still want to be around him :) It was great to get back to my boys. I missed them tons while I was gone. It was weird eating and not having to cut up food or clean up messes. It was weird not toting around all the stuff it takes to care for them on a trip. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but I missed it too.

And finally, if you made it to the end you're super cool :)

Christmas 2010

2011-01-08T15:52:00.004-06:00

Before I post anything about living it up in Utah I figured I should write about Christmas. I decided to take pictures of the boys this year in their Christmas sweaters myself. Don't judge me; I know they're not the best but I had to put one of each boy up because they're so darn cute.

Seth

Ian

Chase

Getting Chase to look at the camera for a picture is almost impossible. He's very frustrating in that way. He's also frustrating in the way that he doesn't want help doing anything. I'm pretty sure he says "No me" way more than anyone should say anything. Unless you're telling me I'm cool. I don't get tired of hearing that :)

This year we stayed home for Christmas and my parents and sister visited us. For two weeks. I thought by the end I would go crazy but it was really very nice. We were all sick at various points in time but did some fun things. Christmas Eve Troy took us on a drive to show off downtown. We happened to be near the Peabody at the time the ducks walk the red carpet to go back to their sweet pad on the roof. The kids got to sit along the red carpet as the ducks passed and they loved it. I would have loved to have gotten a good picture of it but our new camera doesn't do well in such low lighting.They also had an enormous Gingerbread Peabody and a gorgeous tree. I can see why St. Jude puts people up there who interview.

Sydney and the Gingerbread Peabody

My family by the cool tree

There was also a player piano near the tree. We told Ian it was a ghost and he believed us. Ghosts are pretty common in our home. While we were doing something else a real man came to play and we told Ian he appeared magically. The look on his face was priceless.

Of course Troy made his famous figgy pudding and it was delicious as always. Not having Mike Waters around made it kind of bittersweet though. I really missed hearing Mike sing "Oh, bring us some figgy pudding."

Christmas Day was chaos and the kids were totally spoiled by my mom and dad and Santa. The boys were sooo happy to finally get pillow pets and loved watching Sydney's copy of Despicable Me. If you've never seen that movie you're really missing out. I personally saw it every day for a week and never got tired of it.

We had an awesome turkey for dinner that night that literally fell apart (like in half) when we took it out of the cooking bag. And Troy and I had an awesome fight about when it was done which made it that much more special. He even threw the meat thermometer away since I "wasn't using it anyway." It was classic. I love that man.

Since we're poor and my parents are poor we got a little creative finding things to do. We pretty much wanted everything to be free and Memphis has some good stuff. We took them to the Crystal Shrine Grotto which is this beautiful cave built in a cemetery. So maybe that doesn't sound amazing but it is. It has several sculptures inside depicting scenes of Christ's life and biblical stories. The grounds around it are very beautiful and the cave feels so peaceful and serene. I highly recommend visiting it. And it's free. Here's a link if you want to see pictures from inside the cave: Crystal Shrine Grotto. The tree with Zacchaeus is my favorite. I got some pretty good pictures around the cave, just not in it.

We also went to the Pink Palace Museum the afternoon it was free. I think I could have watched the miniature circus all day long. This man carved an entire circus out of wood and then animated it using a small motor. It's pretty incredible and the longer you watch it the more detail you see. I think Troy and I will go back to the museum one day sans kids so we can take the time to enjoy it even more.

New Year's Eve was pretty awesome. Troy and I bought ourselves a raclette for Christmas. The Pattersons introduced us to its awesomeness a couple of years ago and now that we're so far away from them we decided to get our own. I wasn't sure what my parents would think of it because it's not really a mainstream thing around here but it turned out to be lots of fun. My dad even liked it and he was sick.

I think the night went downhill after that for Troy but we made it to midnight and that's what matters, right? Now it's a new year. I thought about setting some goals but haven't yet. I guess my resolution is to make some resolutions. Or not. I'm pretty happy now except for my jeans getting too tight but I'm not bothered enough to do anything about it. Life is good.

Where did November go?

2010-12-02T08:38:00.003-06:00

It's once again time for my monthly post. I totally missed last month but that's because last month came and went in what seemed like a day. Looking back in my planner I'm not actually sure what I did last month. Soccer season ended at the beginning of the month, just as it was getting cold. Next spring the boys want to play baseball. I'm hoping I'll be able to get them on the same team. It was really hard on the days they played at the same time because I wanted to watch both. In fact, Ian got his first goal as I was on my way to Seth's game to switch places with Troy. I wanted to cry.

Then there was the Primary Program. My boys totally rocked their parts. Ian was a little nervous at first but when it came time for his line he was all over it. Seth of course had no fear. He has total confidence in himself. He's kind of like his mother in that way. I only got to see the backs of their heads while they did it because I was on the stand with my class. Last year I was in the presidency and sat facing the Primary from my "helper's chair" by the stand so I got to see all the kids. Troy assured me the boys took their singing very seriously.

Last week we drove to Maryland for Thanksgiving. I was absolutely dreading it. I love my in-laws, don't get me wrong. It was the 13 hour trip I dreaded. The drive there was actually really nice and the visit was too. It may have been the last time we'll all be together for a while if my bro-in-law gets the job his just interviewed for in Wyoming. We spilt up our drive home with a stop in Columbus. We stayed with our friends the Anderson's and got to see the Altmans that night along with their adorable baby girl. Since church doesn't start until 11 we decided to skip it and visit our other friends who still live there. We pretty much just showed up at their apartments. The Pattersons were totally surprised and rewarded us with some German chocolate. Christmas just isn't Christmas without some advent candy from Fran's mom :) Sophia loved Seth because he read to her. I couldn't believe how big she was! After that we went to the Beaty's. I miss them all the time. We used to just pop over whenever we felt like it. Some nights Troy and I wish we still could. It was really good to see them and felt like we'd never left. I love feeling like that. Just driving into the city gave me that feeling. We lived in Columbus for so long that it just feels like home. That day's driving was terrible. Troy was sick and hadn't slept well. We hit some crazy traffic and ended up home later than planned. It was worth seeing our friends though.

And now it's December. All of our decorations are up except the tree. Troy found a place where we can cut our own and we plan to do that Saturday. There's also a parade that day. The boys have never been to a parade and I think they'll love it. Even if they don't, it's supposed to be really nice that day so just being outside will be good for them. So be looking for a post about that day as well as an awesome one Troy has planned about our mall experience in Cumberland.

And the moment you've all been waiting for....

2010-11-03T08:29:00.005-05:00

Drum roll please...my mom received 51 cards! That was as of Monday and I bet she gets some late ones this week. She loved them and even won a dollar (she'll be sending you her ticket to cash it out, Jess). Thank you all for helping me out. Now I have to start thinking about what I'll do for my dad. Good thing he's a year younger :)

It's also finally feeling fall-ish. It's about time seeing as it's November. I didn't realize how much I'm in love with fall in Ohio. Memphis just doesn't compare. Here and there leaves tried to change colors but mostly they just dried up and fell off. I pressed a bunch of fall leaves last year to do crafts with. I never got around to it and I'm thinking I might give it another try. Then I can hang fall leaves on my walls to make up for the ones I never saw outside.

And speaking of fall (that's one of the boys fav phrases) I guess I should post something about Halloween. We kicked off the holiday by going to a corn maze. The boys had a lot of fun but that's to be expected when the activity involves running through dusty paths. We didn't get any rain pretty much all summer and that field was as dusty as Tulare. We made it through without getting lost and that was pretty cool too.

Seth's class had a Harvest Party. Not a Halloween Party because that would be offensive to...somebody I guess. His room mom did a great job finding fun crafts for them to do and they got to eat two of them as their treat. I don't think the kids really understood those were the treats for the party but took it well anyway. Here's Seth with the cookie spider he made. A couple of kids were absent so Ian was able to participate as well. I pretty much abandoned Chase in his stroller next to their table so I could help the class out. Every now and then someone would give him a couple of pretzels dipped in marshmallow fluff so I don't think he minded too much.

For Halloween the boys dressed up as Star Wars guys-big surprise. My friend Shauna happened to have costumes to fit each of the boys and they loved them. Chase especially liked being a wookie.

At trunk or treat we found Darth Vader and an Ewok. George Lucas would be proud.

And here I am as part of "Gang Green." Get it? Gangrene? I didn't have any thug clothes but I think we still looked pretty cool.

They got tons of candy that night at the church. The next night we tried out a neighborhood that was supposed to be good but we got their too late. It was still fun though and we got some awesome chimichangas for dinner. Seriously, Shauna, those were awesome. And there's my month in a nutshell.

My Mom's Birthday

2010-10-20T07:49:00.002-05:00

My mom turns 50 on Halloween and as part of her gift I'm trying to get 50 people to send her birthday cards. If you're reading this and want to send a card please let me know. I'm up to 23 and have left several messages on answering machines but I'm not exactly sure all the phone numbers were correct. I hate when people don't record some kind of message in their own voice, even if they don't say their names. Hearing a familiar voice makes leaving a message so much easier. Anyway, if you know my mom or if you don't but think you'd like her if you did and want to send a card it would be awesome. I'll e-mail her address to those who need it.

Atlanta and my Lame-O Reunion

2010-10-13T08:59:00.005-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we went to Atlanta to see the Phillies play the Braves. It was supposed to be a surprise and would have been if I hadn't ruined it. I'd e-mailed Seth's teacher asking if he could give his presentation a day early and she mentioned to him that I'd said we'd be out of town. He came home and guessed we were going to the game. Of all the things to guess I don't know how that game was the first thing that crossed his mind but it was.

The trip started off smashingly. That van is incredible! There was so much room! Nobody had to touch anybody! Seven hours after we left we were all still a happy family, although traffic getting through Atlanta almost gave me a panic attack. Here's Chase happily looking at a book:
Here are Seth and Ian happily hanging out in back watching a movie, probably "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." They watched it three times.

We were planning on getting dinner on the way to the stadium but there was no way we could have gotten on and off the interstate in that traffic even if we'd seen anywhere to stop. We ended up having to eat at the stadium- 5 hot dogs and a drink for $26. Oh yeah. The Phillies won though and we got to see Jimmy Rollins hit a "grand smacker" as Seth calls it. Once people sat in the rows below us I felt more comfortable about our seats. I could just see one of my kids topple to their death when the seats below were empty. Knowing there would be people to break their fall was a great comfort to me. Turner Field was nice but I think I like watching the Redbirds more. We can afford to be so much closer to the action.

Saturday morning I got to go to the Margaret Mitchell House and see where she wrote Gone with the Wind. Troy took the boys to a park so I could go on the tour alone. He's amazing. The museum was small and the boys would have been wild and I don't think I would have been able to really appreciate it. They also had an exhibit on the movie with the original door from Tara and the portrait of Scarlett in the blue dress that Rhett throws his drink at. It was pretty cool. Here we are in front of the house. Or maybe it's the back.

After that we went to the Varsity for lunch. It's a famous restaurant in Atlanta, just burgers and hot dogs and things like that. It was cheap and fun and the boys got cool hats which have now been added to the clutter in my house. Their onion rings were divine.

After lunch we went to the World of Coca-Cola (Ian is pretty adamant that we call it Coca-Cola) and were found by a fellow Mormon. It was the most random thing; we were just looking in a display case and a girl comes up to us and asks where we were from. I don't know if it was the circus that is my family or my knee shorts or that she could see through the back of my cream-colored shirt but she knew who we were. Turns out she was from Utah. So random. We went to the testing room where they have 60 varieties of Coke products from around the world and tried as many as we could. Not so many from Europe though because they were mostly teas. While there Troy found this bottle in a display case. Gotta love the Circleville Pumpkin Show. I know I do. Sorry it's horizontal but I didn't feel like going back and changing it. Later at the hotel Chase threw up all over the floor so I'm guessing something he drank wasn't working for him so much.

On the way back home we stopped to have lunch with some friends from Ohio who moved to Alabama. It took a minute but then the kids all acted like they'd just seen each other yesterday. I love those kids. Troy tells me that if we ever have a girl (like that'll happen) he'd want her to be like one of these. I babysat them for a long time and I have to say they are darling and I imagine their brother is too.

I came home and got ready for my reunion. I was so excited. I bought a new dress and shoes and I was ready to see people I hadn't seen in 10 years. I arranged to meet up with my friend Emma who'd come from Australia via England and it was going to be awesome. The reunion planners said there were 200+ tickets so I expected to see a lot of super drunk people. It was going to be awesome.

I picked up Emma and we headed over. It was so lame! 50-60 were there, max. They'd changed the date because it conflicted with Relay for Life, a pretty big event in Tulare. Did those people they changed it for come? Nope. The food was okay and there were a couple of skanky girls that made me laugh every time I looked their way but that was it. Emma and I had a good time though and eventually Taryn showed up with her fiance Nate. He seems great and she looks really happy and it had been 5 years since I'd seen her so I guess those three made it all worth it.

Here we are at the reunion. Notice the lack of decoration. No decorations! Not to toot my own

horn but I helped plan a lot of Enrichments with an awesome committee and we never would have planned an event that lame. Not even in the beginning when it was just me and Heidi and we didn't know what we were doing.

Emma and I planned a "Super Awesome Reunion" at Denny's on Saturday night for our friends that we knew couldn't make it because of the date change or because they just weren't coming to the other. We had a lot of good times at Denny's. A couple of people I really wanted to see ended up not being able to come to that either but the four of us that did had a nice time. Here we are looking as hot as we did 10 years ago. Maybe even hotter.

Sunday my aunt surprised my mom with a cake for her birthday. She turns 50 on Halloween and Carol thought since I was there it would be nice to do a little family celebration early. Mamma was surprised and had a heck of a time getting the leftovers in her fridge but she finally managed it :) It was a big cake. It took forever to light the candles and I'm pretty sure there was enough wax on the cake to make a candle but it was fun.

Emma and Keith had stopped by to visit so they got to party with us. It was so nice to see her! The summer after we graduated I'd drive to her host mom's and pick her up. We'd float around the little pool my dad set up in the back yard trying to get tan or drive to Visalia looking for sales at Old Navy. And then of course there was all the Mock Trial fun we had with Dimitri and Mike and all the rest. I wish those two had come to Denny's. I was very sad when she had to go home and wish she didn't live so far away.

What did Troy and the boys do while I was gone? I think the boys drove him crazy at times and he learned a new appreciation for what I do everyday. I'm so grateful that he was okay with me spending a crazy amount of money to go to a reunion that ended up being crappy. He's very good to me and I'm lucky to have him. Seriously, he's amazing.

September

2010-09-29T13:18:00.006-05:00

I think blogging would be more fun if I kept up on it. Here's what's been happening to the Clines recently.

Saturday has become this incredible day for us. Well, maybe that's not true now that soccer has started again. Pre-soccer though, it was great. One Saturday we woke up and decided to go to the zoo. Memphis has an awesome zoo and on this trip we decided to visit the Birds and the Bees exhibit. For a dollar you can buy a stick to feed the birds. Did we want to spend the money? No. We're cheap. Fortunately there were kinder parents there who bought them for their kids and passed them along to us on their way out. The boys loved it. Troy had to get the bird on the stick for Ian but Seth fearlessly left the path to get his own. Chase wasn't a fan.
After being there for an hour or so Troy thought it would be fun to go to River Walk on Mud Island. We've been talking about doing it all summer but it's just been too darn hot. That weekend was beautiful. We walked the mile and a half replica of the lower Mississippi River and then splashed around in the "Gulf of Mexico." There were paddle boats in the Gulf but they charged by the person and we didn't do that either. Free is our motto :) These are the boys at the beginning of the walk:

And this is at the end. It was really cool and I plan on doing it many more times before we leave Memphis.

On the way home we drove by Graceland. I went on a tour during Road Trip 2001 and would love to go back with Troy. About a block away we had an Elvis sighting. You know he's not dead.

Next in the month came Troy's birthday- the big 3-3! I made him a super awesome dinner (you can get the recipe on the recipe blog I started with some friends http://www.buckeyefriends.blogspot.com/). It's a good thing too because his cake was pretty much the ugliest ever.

Seriously. The frosting was kind of melted and the cake was too domed so it split. Our friends that were over said I should turn it into a volcano. I'm glad Troy and I have been married so long because otherwise giving him a cake like that for his birthday would have made me cry about being a bad wife. Now I know it just means another awesome memory.

Seth is still a genius at school. Since his first spelling test in kindergarten he's never misspelled a word. I guess his teacher could tell and that he's not the only one because she split the class into two lists. His test went from this:

To this:

He finally has to study them and gets really frustrated as we practice but he still hasn't missed any. Ian is trying to read. He can read simple books like Hop on Pop as long as the letters say the sound they ought too. English really is a very hard language to learn. He's got his upper case letters down and many of the lower case too. I'm thinking about starting with writing numbers next. I'm so happy he finally wants to do these kind of things because if you know Ian, you know his attention span can be pretty short and in general he'd rather do his own thing than sit and do school work. Unless it's coloring. He loves to color.

The boys started soccer again last week. They played this spring because I didn't know where to sign them up for baseball. Now we know to do it at Bellevue Church. I found cleats at Goodwill the day before the game. They only had 3 pairs for boys and 2 of the pairs were the right size. And for a total of $9 they were the right price too. The cleats make them look much more professional.

They measured the fields incorrectly (using feet instead of yards) so the fields were tiny. The kids playing with Ian couldn't keep it in so parents surrounded the field to "help" it back in to keep the game going. Ian got right out there and played like a superstar.

The team that was supposed to play Seth didn't show so his coach split the team and they scrimmaged. All the parents were amazed at how much better they are than when they started in the spring. They kick the ball with more purpose and help defend the goal now. And Seth's shorts and socks just barely touch- last season there was quite an overlap. He's getting so tall!

And that brings us up to today. I went on a field trip with Seth's CLUE class to the Lichterman Nature center. They've been doing a Wizard of Oz unit so we went there to see some animals and judge scarecrows. Some of them were pretty awesome. This is "Vincent van Crow"

And "Carly Cartwheel." Ian loves to do cartwheels so I had to get a picture of it.
This is Seth and some of his buddies from class.

Well, that was exhausting. If you made it to the end of the post you must really like me. Or are really bored. I think I'll try harder to keep up.

Updates

2010-09-02T09:17:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I held Alyssa's new baby. And I liked it. A lot.

In the last week I've found a tick crawling along Chase's shirt as well as a black widow hanging out on the patio. I guess our backyard's dangerous.

Yesterday I busted out the good ol' needle and thread and repaired the cushions on my rocker and an old quilt. It felt good.

Our friends the Andersons are visiting next week and we are sooo excited! Now I just have to clean.

Troy bought tickets for us to see the Phillies in Atlanta. We're not telling the boys about the game and will only tell them about our trip the morning that we leave. I'm planning on visiting the Margaret Mitchell House. Awesome.

The weather's cooling down and I'm in love with Memphis again.

Second Blog

2010-08-25T15:55:00.002-05:00

I started a second blog just for recipes. If you want to be included let me know. So far it's mostly me and Fran contributing. Not that that's bad because we are awesome cooks but it's fun to finally have access to some of those recipes we love but never got. If you want to check it out you can at www.buckeyefriends.blogspot.com.

Chase's Birthday and the First Day of School

2010-08-11T07:22:00.004-05:00

Before I talk about Chase's birthday I have a funny story about him. The other night we had a thunderstorm while I was making dinner. For once Seth and Ian weren't running around screaming like girls about it so I was pretty happy. Suddenly Chase comes running into the kitchen and gets in the cabinet. Kind of normal so I don't think anything of it. He gets out after a while and the next time he heard thunder he ran and got in again. He was hiding from the thunder! I felt bad laughing because he had such a worried look on his face but it was really cute.
On to his birthday. On Saturday Chase turned 2! How did that happen? Some days I feel like I just had him. We had some friends over and had a little cookout.

When it came time for the presents, Chase didn't mess around. He knew exactly how to do it and wanted no help from his brothers.

He got some cool stuff, including this guitar. My friend Shauna said his favorite toy at her house is a guitar so we found one for him. He pretty much fell asleep playing with it. He really loves music.

Monday was Seth's first day of first grade.

He was very excited and I was too. He and Ian got along very well this summer but I could tell Seth was bored and needed school. He started a new school this year which I'm still not too sure about but we didn't really have a choice (if you ever want to hear me complain about it give me a call). Monday was the school's first day open so there were a lot of "kinks" to be worked out. He can ride the bus now which is great. I walk 4 minutes to the bus stop instead of the 25 min I was walking before which is AMAZING! And to make it even cooler, a group of young black men yelled profanity at me from their car yesterday as I was walking. Pretty awesome, I know. I can't wait for him to start bringing papers home because when I ask him what he's done he always says nothing. Two days into first grade and I'm already getting that line.

Home From California

2010-07-29T09:39:00.014-05:00

I got back this week from our yearly trip to California. I bought the tickets later than I normally do and didn't really tell anyone I was coming. I spent much of the two weeks hanging out at my parent's house instead of frantically visiting as many family members and friends as possible and it was very nice.

While there we went to the beach and fished twice. The first time we fished the boys each "caught" two. And by "caught" I mean the fish were on their poles meaning they claimed the rights to those fish. I actually caught three of them which made me feel pretty good. The second time we fished we went to a pond in Tulare they stock for fisherman under 15. All together the boys and Sydney caught 11 fish, many of which they cast and reeled in by themselves. They were tiny, tiny fish but sometimes it's about quantity, not quality. That's something my friend Bethany used to say. I did see her and my friend Heather. We met up at Starbucks on Sunday which was kind of random because I don't shop on Sundays and I don't drink coffee but it was a convenient place for us all to meet up. We talked there for two hours and it was nice to see them. Heather and her husband are going through the process of adopting and talked a good bit about that.

I didn't fight with my mom which was pretty great and the boys loved all the cable and junk food. We really had a good time.

And now for some pictures. Be prepared; I have a lot. The first is from the first night there. Cotton candy ice cream. Enough said.

The boys on the Dora quad. Chase did not like it. Seth however, was a crazy man on that thing. He must be learning from the local drivers. Totally fearless that kid is.

Ian found seaweed on the beach. My dad told him it was a whale tail and Ian totally bought it.

Chase hated the sand the first day. He sat by my dad on a towel eating Cheetos.

Me and Chasey. Doesn't he look old?

I just love this one of my mom and Seth.

It took awhile for Ian to warm up to the ocean (I mean that only figuratively because the water was COLD). Once he did he loved it.

Group shot. That's Sydney buried in the sand.

Feeding the seals in Morro Bay. Nothing like throwing dead fish heads to barking seals. I know I loved doing it when I was a kid.

The kids outside Giovanni's (I think that's what it's called). Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Yum. Ian tried everything- my chowder, my bread bowl, my mom's clams and my dad's fish. Seth stuck to his grilled cheese.

Seth's pretty much in love with Morro Rock. Every time he saw it he told me he was going to climb it when he grows up. I could do without all the seagull poop myself.

Checking out the rock.

Looking cool at Costa Lakes.

Seth's "second" fish at the lake.

Sydney's catch. I love the way the angle makes it look like it might be bigger than 4 inches.

Family shot.

Fishing at Del Lago park. We really did spend a lot of time fishing.

Getting ready to fly home.

We really had a nice trip and came home to a beautiful home. Troy worked hard to get it ready for us and it only took a few minutes for us to mess it up. Now we've got a week to get ready for Chase's birthday and the first day of first grade. Summers just don't last as long as they did when I was a kid.

Give It Up For the NL

2010-07-15T12:51:00.002-05:00

If Sarah is going to abandon her blog for a two-week "vacation" to California and leave a lone man in my bachelor-hood then I'm taking over her blog. She remains responsible for everything I write and my opinions most definitely DO represent her opinions.

So let's hear it for the National League in Tuesday night's All-Star game!!!! After 13 consecutive years of coming up short to the American League in the summer classic the NL finally put together a winning effort. Brian McCann drove in the winning runs on one swing of the bat. I cheered and for the record I believe this is the first time that I have ever, ever, ever cheered for a Braves player. I'm more likely to vote for Obama's re-election than I am to cheer for the Braves.

And to emphasize my dedication, the Fox broadcast was having alot of trouble coming in clearly on the tv so I stood on the fireplace and held the antenna in an awkward position for almost the entire game so that I could watch. How's that for dedication to the game of baseball?

Brian McCann was the MVP but the real heroes (for both the NL and the AL) were the pitchers. There surely has never been a baseball game played anywhere in all of time with as many pitches flirting with 100 mph as Tuesday's game. It was a sight to behold. The hardest thing to do in all of sports (so the experts say) is to hit a baseball thrown at a professional level. Eighteen batters struck out total. That's eighteen strikeouts against the best players in the game. This year's theme in the majors has been the dominating pitching and it was on display Tuesday.

Now it's time to get ready for the 2nd half of the season and hope that the Phillies see a resurgence and rise back to the top of the division.

2010-07-06T13:28:00.002-05:00

Troy said I'm failing as a blogger because I never post anything. The reason of course is that I don't have anything to say. He would say that doesn't stop me any other time and he's probably right :)

I did get a little crafty though yesterday. I hung pictures on the wall of the staircase. The frames don't match and I've been meaning to paint them. I've also been meaning to paint the FHE board I won at the Ward auction (in March) and yesterday I bit the bullet and did the frames and the board. It all looks pretty good except for one frame that kept getting bubbles so if you ever come to my house, don't look at that one too closely. I know I won't. Now I just need frames for the pictures I taped up around what's already framed. Troy thinks it looks tacky and he's right but I know I'll never get frames if I can't see what I need them for. If it's ever finished I'll take a picture of it. I've got three more years, right?

Today we had someone spray around the house for pests. This is the first time we've had to pay for such a service and it kind of made me sick to my stomach but finding cockroaches around the house made me more sick. Especially the giant ones that are common in the south, or so I'm told. They're like 2 inches long. Ew, ew, ew. Maybe if I wasn't a clean freak it wouldn't be so bad but I am so it is.

Next week I'm going to California to beat the heat (well, the humidity anyway). I'm flying alone with the boys which I swore I'd never do again but Troy can't make it this time. The boys will probably be fine but I've got to be mentally prepared for the worst. I've found that's the best way to travel because then when they're naughty it's so much better than expected and I don't get so stressed out.

Dinner Conversation

2010-06-29T14:02:00.002-05:00

I love my little Ian. He says the craziest stuff. He calls Buttercup from Toy Story 3 Peanut butter cup. Watermelon is waterlemon, Bob and Larry from Veggie Tales is Bob and Tulare. Mockingbirds are knockingbirds. There's no end to the amusement he provides our family. The other night out of the blue, he looks at our one empty chair at the table and says to us that we need another baby for that chair. Troy very quickly says no but I played along and asked what kind of baby. Seth and Ian both say a girl. Then Chase pipes up, "Boy." I could barely breathe I was laughing so hard. Looks like he's going to be just as funny as his brothers.

I'm also very happy to say that I did make friends before Eclipse came out and am going to see it at midnight. I was very worried about this if you'll remember because making friends is hard for me but I'm pretty sure I found the coolest girls in the ward and now they're my friends.

Robbers and Monsters

2010-06-11T17:49:00.003-05:00

Where would we get our laughs from if not from Ian? This child lives in his own little world 22 hours of the day and is oblivious to reality. He's obsessed with robbers. His worst insult is to call somebody a robber. "You're a robber, dad" he'll say. Last night I (Troy) was reading The Book of Mormon with the boys while Sarah was at a friend's house watching So You Think You Can Dance (there's something wrong with this picture). Anyway, we came to the verse in chapter 3 of 1 Nephi where Laban kicks Laman out of his house proclaiming 'thou art a robber'. The boys cracked up laughing. I'm not sure Laman found the situation as funny.

Later, after Ian was asleep, Seth came downstairs and we had a brief conversation:

Me - "Seth get back in bed."
Seth - "Dad guess what Ian just said in his sleep?"
Me - "What did he say?"
Seth - "He said 'not my gumdrop buttons, you're a monster!!'

I had to run up and check that Ian truly had been asleep when he allegedly said this. Sure enough he was sound asleep. In case you're wondering, that line comes from the gingerbread man in the original Shrek when he is being "tortured" by the king. It's the greatest line from all animated movies ever and I've got an oblivious 4 year-old dreaming about poor Gingy getting tortured. Like I said, where would be without our Ian? He is non-stop entertainment.

Update on my dad

2010-06-09T18:24:00.003-05:00

My dad ended up in a hospital in Fresno. He had to drink some stuff Monday night to "clean him out" so they could check him out with a scope. I guess they didn't find out what was wrong and wanted to do it again. Except my dad hates being confined, wasn't happy at all with the care and just wanted to go home. So that's what he did. Last I heard he was in the car on the way to McDonald's and planning to repeat the test again closer to home. That's all I know for now but he doesn't sound like death on the phone which is a plus for a daughter worrying about him two time zones away.

Completely unrelated, I decided today that I would bust out the weed whacker and do some trimming to help out Troy so he could cut the grass today. It's seriously a jungle out there and there are some very freaky varieties of spiders out hiding. Since I've vowed to not use the mower I thought this would be helpful. Or stupid. Because it's hot here. I don't like to sweat. I don't like the way it makes me sticky or the unattractive blotchiness it gives my skin or the way it clogs my pores. But sweat I did. A lot. I'm sure Jessica, Emily and Kari understand because of where they've lived. Now I think I fully appreciate what somebody here told me when I asked her what people do here in the summer. Her response: People don't really go outside. Wiser words were never spoken.

Out With the Old....

2010-06-06T16:12:00.004-05:00

...in with the new(er). We finally did it! We bought a car. We kind of had to since Curtis was totalled. We said goodbye to him a couple of weeks ago. The boys drew pictures for him and left them in the car. He really looked sad in the junkyard with all the cars that were totally smashed up. Somebody will buy him though and with a little love he'll be a good little car again.We got a fat check from Nationwide insurance, more than he was worth I think, and with that and some fancy figuring we finally brought home this:

It's pretty much the most amazing thing ever. I think I like it more than my husband. It's one whole year newer than what we had and has some miles on it but it's a Honda and was well cared so it should last us a good while. The boys sit in the back pretending they're racing the cars around us and that we're about to crash which I guess is a fun game now. And it should be payed off in less than a year which is also great. The whole process was quite and ordeal. We didn't think we could afford it, then we did, then we didn't again and told them we didn't want it. Then my mom said something to me which made me realize we really could do it so we did and I am so happy.

I got home last night and tried to call and tell my folks but nobody would answer. My mom called me this morning to let me know that my dad had been in bed with the flu for a couple of days and last night he stood up, passed out, had a seizure and went to the hospital. While there he had blood in his stool (TMI I know) and they took him up to Fresno so a surgeon could take a look. So pretty much we don't know what's wrong yet but at least he's in a place where he can get help. He's had a bleeding ulcer before and I'm hoping that's all it is. All I have to say is not to check Web MD. It only freaks you out more.

2010-06-06T08:46:00.001-05:00

My dad went in the hospital last night. At this point they're not sure exactly what's wrong but if you're fasting today and wanted to include him (or just say a prayer) it would be really appreciated.

Movie Night

2010-05-29T11:23:00.002-05:00

It's no secret that I love to read. When I start a book, almost any book, I can't put it down until it's finished. I don't clean my house, I ignore my family, I pretty much go into a reading coma. I think it's because I always saw my mom reading something that I turned out this way although she shows far greater control and takes her time. The boys also love to read. A couple of months ago I decided to start reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to the boys before bed. Ian was into it for the first few chapters but it was just me and Seth for most of the book. As I read he would gaze off in the distance and I could see him trying to imagine the scenes taking place. I was one proud mom. We finished it this week and as we started Prince Caspian I remembered that The lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe had been made into a movie fairly recently and thought we should watch it. Seth and Ian loved it. They were throwing out words like "faun" and "Mr. Tumnus" and "Cair Paravel." It was sweet. I was a little worried about the fighting even though there wasn't any blood. When Seth said something like, "Cool. That guy got dead!" I knew I was okay. Troy also brought home silly bands, Dr. Pepper and sour straws. It's probably the best movie night we've ever had.

Last night I discovered Chase has a popcorn addiction. He also said banana today. You're probably thinking that's not a big deal since he is almost 2 but for my kids who start talking so much later than everyone else's, this is huge. He can't say "nana" without his tongue sticking way out but it's definitely a start. Ian has learned to spell his first word and I'm ashamed to say it's...O-H. I-O. I guess he's a Buckeye after all.

New Car

2010-05-22T22:20:00.002-05:00

That's right. Looks like we're probably getting a new car which would be cool if it meant we had two. Except it would actually be replacing the one we own which got crunched pretty badly when we were rear ended. Luckily nobody was hurt (10 people total in 4 cars) but now we're car-less. Fortunately we have friends who picked us up and have volunteered to be our chauffeurs until we get a rental Monday. Seth was pretty freaked out but if you've been around him you know that's to be expected. It all happened very quickly and somehow Troy turned the wheel in such a way that instead of directly hitting the car in front of us we kind of slid between it and the car in the left turn lane. Our airbags weren't even deployed. Seth said Heavenly Father protected us with an energy shield and really you can see His hand in it, even if it is kind of a bummer. Unless the car's totalled and we get some money out of it which would definitely be a blessing. Or maybe our car will be miraculously not-that-damaged and we'll get it back. Then I think of that noise it made when Troy tried to move it. Not so cool. Also not cool was hearing a car driving over one of our headlights that was left in the road. We've had Curtis (yes, we named it) for 7 years and it made my heart hurt to hear that sound.

So that was pretty exciting. I think the best was when the boys saw the tow truck coming to get us and when the policemen were chatting with them waiting for our ride. Seth especially liked getting to peak in the car to see where the bad guys have to sit. Oh, and having to climb out my window because my door wouldn't open. Also classic was Troy having to get in his seat from the back seat because his door was blocked. If you've seen our car you'd know why that's funny. It was very hot and we were very sweaty but I can't think of a nicer bunch of people to have been stuck there with. Everybody was very friendly and we were all very grateful that we weren't in the accident that happened further down the road, at the same time as ours, where someone was hurt. It's a dangerous road.

Now let's change the subject. The boys had their last soccer games today. They both played like rock stars and got really cool trophies. I'm very proud of them. Seth's a natural with his aggression and focus. Little Ian got over his fear and got right out there and kicked the ball without being bribed or anything. His even assisted in a goal today and was very proud. I loved watching them grow each week as they practiced and gained confidence. I'm kind of not very athletic (ha!) and I'm amazed at how quickly they pick this stuff up and how good they are. They must get it from their dad. Chase fell in a big mud puddle and spent the rest Seth's game and all of Ian's wearing nothing but a diaper and his shirt. We must have looked like white trash. It was so hot I wish I could have pulled that look off myself :)

Camping and Graduation Pictures

2010-05-21T10:16:00.002-05:00

So my punk husband beat me to blogging and these are the pictures to go along. I don't have many because we mostly taped it on our super old camcorder that uses *gasp* video casettes! The whole morning was wonderful and I think I may be more sad that his first year is ending than he is. Partly because of the fights that I'll be breaking up all day for the next few months and partly because he won't be seeing some of these kids again next year. I really wish that there wasn't a new school being built and that there hadn't been any rezoning. I loved listening to his stories about his class and will miss the drama. I'm sure there will be plenty next year too but I'll have to relearn the players and that's hard for my brain that's already stretched to its limit most days. The first pic of them getting ready to sing.
Seth and his super cute teacher. Doesn't she look too young to teach? Around her I feel old.
These are a couple from the camping trip. Notice the bike helmets. There wasn't anywhere to ride but I guess they still needed to protect their little heads.
Seth the explorer.
Ian.

They came home filthy and stinky. I guess that means they had a great time!

Kindergarten Grad

2010-05-19T12:30:00.003-05:00

Allow a proud dad to claim the right to take over the family blog one more time. This morning was Seth's end-of-year kindergarten program. His class, along with several others, sang a collection of songs from Seussical the Musical in the gymnasium and then we headed back to his classroom for a little party. On each desk was a book, a pillow case with a painted handprint of each student in the class, a Chimneyrock Elementary cup, and a DVD of images of the students' activities from throughout the entire year. We watched the DVD together in the classroom and it was very sweet even if most of the pictures were taken by one girl's mom and so was obviously heavy on pictures of her and her little girlfriends.

Miss Burroughs gave out awards to each student. It was refreshing that instead of giving out one generic award to everybody, she named each student's award in honor of a personality trait or skill which that student excelled in. As a proud father I thought that a number of them would have suited Seth perfectly but wasn't surprised when she gave Seth the award for creative writing. When we met with Miss Burroughs in March for a parent/teacher conference she gushed over how good his journal writing is. I'm thrilled that, of all the kindergarten teachers Seth could have been assigned to at Chimneyrock, he was placed in Sydney Burroughs's classroom. She's a great teacher. She couldn't be older than 24 or 25 and if she is representative of the up and coming generation of school teachers in America then public education is coming into a great period.

I couldn't be more proud of my Sethy this year. He's reading at a 2nd grade level and loves reading chapter books all by himself in the back of the car. He can do basic addition and subtraction. He can write very, very well. He's always had a thirst for learning even before kindergarten was in the picture. This is the kid, who at 3 years old, was selecting books from the library about planets and weather. He loves to learn. I'm also proud of how easily he makes friends. He's a very social child and gets along so well with his classmates. There's nobody that Seth won't try to befriend. I remember taking him to the play area at Tuttle Mall when he was 3 or 4. Even if we only let him play for 15 or 20 minutes he would find the time to make a friend and play with that kid on the playground. I envy that trait in him and hope he never loses it.
I'm excited to see how he continues to advance coming into 1st grade next year. Way to go Seth, we love you.

Girl's Night In

2010-05-15T08:16:00.003-05:00

That's what I almost had last night. Troy took Seth and Ian on the Father/son camp out and left Chase home with me. I was kind of sad as I watched them drive away, off to have fun without me. Then I felt the sweat drip into my eye and thought about how gross it was going to be to sleep in the humid outdoors and got over it real quick.

Chase and I had fun. He sat next to me on the couch with his baby, blanket, cup and books (he needs them all, all the time) until bedtime. That's when I dusted off my copy of Twilight and watched it and loved it and ate more Oreos than I care to admit. I also guided my parents through sending their first e-mail ever now that they're online. Then I got to sleep until 8 and now it's 8:30 and Chase is still happily singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star upstairs in his room. I hope my other boys are doing well.

Seth's 6th birthday was Monday. I still can't believe I have a kid that old! He wanted to have a party and invite his whole class but we just don't have that kind of room. The compromise was to bring a treat to his class. Of course he picked the messiest treat possible, chocolate glazed donuts, but the kids loved them and got the chocolate everywhere. I hung out with him there until nap time and I think Ian would have stayed all day. He loved being there with his big brother and Seth even took him to the bathroom with him.

Later that day we had a couple of of his friends over from church with their families. Once again it was an ordeal because he wanted to have all his friends from church over and once again we just don't have the room. We had cake and ice cream and presents and Seth thought everything was the best ever.

I also wanted to throw in some pictures from Field Day since my parents are finally able to get to my blog to see things. Field Day was nothing compared to New Games Day which is what they do at Palo Verde. Mud pit tug-of-war, soapy slip and slide, parachute and gigantic ball games. They didn't have any of that. It was mostly just relay races and popsicles but the kids still had a blast. Troy came home early so we could go hang out and watch. This is Seth walking with a rubber frog on his head. He has amazing posture.

And of course the popsicles with school buddies.

Now I'll just wait for the troops to come home. Hopefully Troy will have some good pictures and some good stories to tell.

Awesome Weather

2010-05-01T18:17:00.006-05:00

Memphis has some awesome weather. The last two Saturdays we've been under tornado watches. We were woken up by sirens this morning and spent a good bit of our day hanging out in the bathroom waiting them out. I wish the bathroom wasn't the safest place in our house. At one point there was a break in the storm. While looking out the back window Seth found this:

A four inch craw fish was floating through our flooded backyard. We played Wonder Pets and "saved the craw fish" before it was whisked away down the gutter.

On a happier note, last Sunday was Ian's 4th birthday. We decorated the living room for him while he slept and he was so happy to see it when he woke up. We had friends over that night from dinner and I made pizzas. I totally understand why Kari never did the pizza party again. As delicious as it was, it was a super pain in the butt. He enjoyed his presents, especially his bike which he rides around the garage in all day. He also liked his "gelato." He had some a couple of weeks ago at St Jude and requested it for his birthday. It wasn't actually gelato, it was Blue Bell ice cream, which costs almost as much.

We also found Jedi Knight robes at Build-a-Bear which was a hit.Last night was a fundraiser for Girls Camp/Scout Camp. While there Seth somehow punched himself in the face and knocked out his loose tooth. There was blood everywhere. The concerned sisters who brought him to me probably thought I was crazy because I was practically cheering. That tooth has been hanging there crooked for a week and I just couldn't pull it out. Totally worth the bloody mess and he's extra cute. I also found out how magical rice is at drying out a cellphone. Thanks Shauna for your genius suggestion.

Signing Off

2010-04-27T22:27:00.002-05:00

This is Troy signing off of The Cline Family blog. This is long overdue but I thought it was time to let Sarah's family blog be Sarah's family blog again. I'm not going to post here anymore. I will however make snide remarks about the things that Sarah posts. I've moved on to bigger things. I've begun my own blog. It's quite similar to Sarah's except it will be about politics and other issues facing America and it won't have that ridiculous Eclipse thing in the sidebar.

Check it out at www.rediscoverusa.blogspot.com. Join in the discussion if you have something to say. Right now I've got a post up on what I think is America's number one problem. It has nothing to do with Barack Obama. Turns out he is only a symptom of our disease. The real illness is with us and there's some pretty convincing evidence of that spoken at the last general conference which I have included.

Happy Anniversary!

2010-04-26T15:54:00.002-05:00

Today is our seventh anniversary. We started out the day by both forgetting. He remembered first and called me from work. What a couple of dorks. It's probably because we celebrated last week and because Ian's rockin' party last night was kind of draining. I just want to say I love him and I'm lucky to have him. Turns out I can be kind of obnoxious but he thinks it's just part of my charm. He's also a great personal chef, likes it when I get obsessed with a book (mostly), and is a fantastic father. What a man.

I also thought I should let you know he's started his own blog, rediscoverusa.blogspot.com. I think it's going to be pretty cool.

Surprise, Surprise!!

2010-04-23T14:12:00.003-05:00

Leading up to the vote on health care reform that gem of a House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, made the following statement: "We have to pass the bill so you can find out what's in it."

Well it's all coming to pass as Nancy predicted. Now that the vote has been taken and the bill has passed some groups are actually trying to figure out what's in this thing and it ain't pretty. My question is 'where was this information BEFORE the vote was taken?' 'Who was covering this up?'

The government (Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services) has issued this SHOCKING report! Gasp! Read it and weep.

- An estimated 14 million people will lose their employer-provided health insurance. (So much for that shallow promise that Obama made to us)

- The estimated reductions in the growth rate of health spending (and I quote) "may not be fully achievable." (Gee, you don't say?!)

- New fees and taxes on medical devices will likely be passed to the consumer resulting in "higher drug and devices prices and higher premiums." (What? Oh, man, I totally didn't see that one coming. No really. Complete surprise there.)

- By 2011 and 2012 the initial $5 billion dollars of federal funding to set up a national high-risk pool "will be exhausted, resulting in substantial premium increases to sustain the program, we anticipate that further increases would limit further participation." (What? The government underestimated in their budgeting? Get out of town!)

- A significant portion of the increased demand for Medicaid will be difficult to meet (But, but, but, Mr. President, you promised.)

- Businesses will pay $87 billion dollars in penalties between 2014-2019 for failing to offer insurance.

- A separate CBO release estimates that 4 million households will be hit with tax fines for failing to live up to the government's unconstitutional mandate that they purchase health insurance. Okay so maybe the CBO didn't phrase it exactly that way but let's call a spade a spade.

So to anybody who was paying attention none of this should come as a surprise. The republicans were screaming these exact points from the rooftops. My question is, why is it that we're only learning these things NOW? Couldn't this analysis have been carried out BEFORE the bill was passed? Wouldn't that be the TRANSPARENT and OPEN thing to do? After all that's what Obama and Pelosi have promised us, a more transparent government. It stinks to high heaven of corruption and deceipt that we're only now finding out that the republican arguments were, indeed correct and accurate.

I've always said that this health care bill was never about health care or insurance. It's never been about lowering the costs of health care because it obviously isn't going to do that. It is now and always has been about power and control.

The law did, however, say that 34 million more people will have health care. Well that's great but it's like me wrecking my 8-year old Cavalier and then going out to get a $1 million Lamborghini. Who cares if it's going to bankrupt me, at least I have a car to drive.

Just Curious

2010-04-20T16:01:00.002-05:00

I'm curious. I'd like comments (a simple yes or no will suffice) from as many people as possible here. Don't do any google searches or anything before answering. I just want an answer to one question:

Have you heard anything in the news about Obama's relationship with Goldman Sachs? If so, what news source do you recall hearing about this from.

Not have you heard about Goldman Sachs in general but specifically about the relationship between Goldman Sachs and Obama.

Thank you.

Troy

My birthday

2010-04-19T13:38:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was my birthday and I feel like I celebrated all weekend. Friday night we got a babysitter for the kids and went to Melting Pot. Yum. It's kinda pricey (our date counted for my birthday and our anniversary next week) but it was well worth it. The put us in a cozy booth for two and we spent the next couple of ours alone with our fondue. The next morning Seth and Ian had their first soccer games. Seth was a super star and got a goal. His aggression is quite advantageous when he's playing a sport. Little Ian wasn't aggressive at all and we had to bribe him with a Happy Meal to get him on the field but once he got comfortable he was on the field whether he was supposed to be or not. That evening we celebrated the birthday of the son of some friends and played a game later on in the evening. Troy kept trying to get me to go home but it had been so long since doing something like that that he couldn't get me away. In fact, he left at one point to get me a present because he hadn't done it yet.

Yesterday I woke up to gifts and a great breakfast. Troy used all the eggs though so while I was with Seth at a school friend's birthday party he tried to make an egg less cake that we've had before and loved. Since it was Sunday and we had no other backup plan it totally sunk in the middle. It tastes great though and I'm proud of him for trying. I've been eating it all day and I'm very satisfied.

Now I can relax for an hour or two and get ready for Ian's birthday on Sunday. And two soccer practices. And two soccer games. At least I don't have to find time to prepare a lesson this week :)

Tobacco-Gate

2010-04-14T10:03:00.002-05:00

According to some Harvard professor 33% of major league baseball players use smokeless tobacco. Not a surprise, I'm sure that number is pretty accurate. It's kind of gross but don't worry ladies and gentlemen Super Congress is here to save the day. They are set to hold hearings with baseball executives regarding the reasons why tobacco is banned in the minor leagues yet acceptable in the majors. I've got an answer to that -

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL IS A PRIVATE ORGANIZATION THAT MAKES ITS OWN RULES AND THAT'S THE WAY THEY WANT TO DO BUSINESS!!!!!! SO BUTT OUT!!!!!!

Every few years something comes up that causes our congressmen to feel they can get some publicity by marching baseball executives in front of them to answer for this or that and it drives me crazy. What right does congress have to meddle in the affairs of major league baseball? But this should surprise nobody because congress hasn't the right to do most of what they do lately.

Obligatory Baseball Blog

2010-04-08T11:38:00.002-05:00

Allow me to take over Sarah's blog for a moment to talk about a topic that none of you readers care about but that my masculinity demands I address - the start of baseball season. Things kicked off Sunday night in Boston with the Yankees (defending World Series champs) falling to the Sox. I'd like to say I was pleased to see the team that beat my Phillies in last year's World Series lost their season opener. However, I've never been one of the 10s of millions of Yankee-haters in the world and my disgust for Boston runs deep.

So now that the long off-season months are over and the sky is blue again with flowers and trees and birds let's discuss the one thing that all of those other things point to - BASEBALL!!

The Phillies made a few big moves over the off-season trading Cliff Lee (this is where I shed tears) to Seattle and picking up Roy Halladay (perhaps the best pitcher of the 21st century so far) from Toronto. So although that trade is basically a wash and I understand their reasons for dumping Cliff Lee, man I wish they could have had both of those guys. Really, there would be no reason to play the season if they had Lee AND Halladay, just declare the Phillies the world champs and spare everybody else the embarrasment of trying to compete. Picking up Placido Polanco for third base is a major upgrade at that position and I'm gonna like Polanco's return to Philly. In the season opener he hit a grand slam and drove in 6 runs.

So my predictions for 2010 are as follows:

NL East Champ - Phillies, again. The Braves are getting close but the Phils are still clearly the best.
NL Central Champ - St. Louis Cardinals, again. Not even close.
NL West Champ - San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers won't be as good as last year and with their well-developed pitching staff the Giants will be able to squeak out the division over the Rockies.
NL Wild Card - Colorado Rockies. I think the Braves will make a serious run for the WC but the Rockies are a tad more experienced and will be tough to beat in the playoffs.

AL East - Yankees. Last year's world series champs are even better this year. Scary.
AL Central - Minnesota Twins. These guys are becoming big league and I like them because they're doing it with home-grown talent.
AL West - Seattle Mariners. The M's got alot better during the offseason and with Cliff Lee serving as the ace to their rotation they are the favorite to win the division.
AL Wild Card - This is going to be a super exciting WC race. It will be a tight race between 3 or 4 teams but I pick the Boston Red Sox with very low confidence.

NL Champ - Phillies
AL Champ - Yankees

World Series Champs - In this repeat of last year's matchup I'm disappointed to say that I think the Yankees will beat my Phillies yet again.

Pollen

2010-04-07T13:26:00.003-05:00

Growing up in Central California I had allergies. While most people would take a couple of pills a day for it, I'd take 3-4 at a time just so they'd work. Then came Utah and Ohio and life was good. Then I moved here. I wish my camera was good enough to really capture the pollen. It covers everything. You drive around and every car you see is yellow. Troy left our bedroom window open the other night and the next day everything on his nightstand was yellow. Today I went to Walmart and noticed all the oil spots in the parking lot were a weird greenish color. It took a minute but I realized that's the color of oil mixed with pollen.

On a more positive note, the city has turned green practically overnight. And this past weekend our friends the Altmans came down to visit. I love the Altmans. We ate at Paula Deen's Buffet in Tunica, MS and it was awesome as was the Germantown Commissary. They have these sweet potato fries that were positively divine. It was fun getting fat with good friends and the boys had such a great time with their kids playing out back while Rebecca and I chatted inside. It was also nice because our hot water was out all weekend and we were able to go to their hotel and get clean. All except Troy, who opted to take cold showers. He's crazy. Here are the kids on Beale St.

My Life as a Snowtrooper

2010-04-06T13:27:00.005-05:00

Sarah mentioned that I have begun working in the BSL (biosafety level) 3 area. Well, today I was working in there, infecting macrophages with a highly virulent strain of bird flu (H5N1) isolated from one of the first fatal human cases in Hong Kong in 1997 (sorry for the nerdy science talk but I've become particular about not just saying flu anymore when I can help it), anyway I caught a glimpse of my reflection in some glass and I thought - 'my gosh I look like a Snowtrooper.' In case you don't have 2 sons obsessed with Star Wars or weren't a young Star Wars-obsessed boy yourself this is what a Snowtrooper looks like:

Really the only difference is you can see more of my face and I don't get to carry a sweet laser blaster. Nor do I make my living hunting down the Rebel Alliance on the ice planet Hoth. Other than that I look just like this guy. I'm a total dork.

Question. Should This Guy Be in Charge of Anything?

2010-04-05T12:52:00.002-05:00

Have you heard about Representative Hank Johnson's (D-GA) reason for not wanting to send 8000 Marines to Guam? It's a real gem. He's taking part in a hearing with a military general, questioning him and expressing concerns about a larger military presence on Guam. You can youtube the video if you want to see old Hank in action for yourself. After an irrelevant, and lengthy, discussion about the dimensions of the island itself he gets into his real reason for being concerned about 8000 more people on the island. Get ready for it...

Are you sitting down?

Are you ready to hear the wisdom of the man that Georgia's 4th district (east Atlanta and heavily democratic) voted into congress?

And I quote: "My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tipover and actually capsize."

Watch the video. He was completely serious. And hats off to the general who actually found the fortitude to respectfully address this concern that even my 5 year old would know is foolish.

I'd like to be able to say that this is a belated April Fool's joke but, alas, there are really people with this level of idiocy walking the halls of Congress and writing our laws. Still wonder why I don't trust these buffoons? In case you're wondering Hank was a "yes" vote on health care. I suddenly feel so much better about the health reforms knowing that it comes with the full confidence of a man who believes that an island floats in the ocean like an ice cube in a glass of water and will tip over if there are too many people on it. Remind me never to live in Atlanta. I couldn't stand to know that I'm surrounded by people who would vote THIS into office.

Another stroke of genius by Johnson was voting "yes" for a bill in 2007 that cut funding for the troops in Iraq without supplying any provisions for removing the troops or requiring any steps by the Iraqi government to take control of counter-insurgency tactics.

Hank Johnson - only in America could such a twit actually make it to government.

Easter vests

2010-04-01T08:07:00.003-05:00

Since General Conference is Easter weekend this year, the boys wore their Easter vests last Sunday. I think they look very handsome.

I decided to buy myself an Easter dress. The lack of a picture should show you how that went. I ordered something from a company that professes to sell "modest" clothing. Yeah, not so much. It was probably just that one dress. I figured I'd just find something around town. No way. I went out last night and all I can say is Fran, you don't want to be trendy right now. I have never seen so many short dresses in my life. And I'm short. I can only imagine how they'd fit a woman of average height. Unless of course showing your butt is cool now. Personally I think it's gross but what do I know.

Troy's finally able to go in the BSL-3 facilities. It took him three months of training and background checks and he still can't go in alone but he can go in. He has to suit up in disposable clothes and a respirator. At first the idea made me nervous but now I think he's super cool and I'm kind of jealous.

The Best TV Shows Ever

2010-03-30T11:11:00.003-05:00

I've decided to write a non-political post. This may be my first ever such post.
What are the best American television shows of all time in your opinion? You can define that however you would like - most popular, most enlightening, had the most "real" characters...whatever. Here's my list of shows that would HAVE to be included on a list of the greatest ever (in no particular order):

1 - All In The Family (actually this one IS is order). This is the greatest show of all time because it was one of the most controversial and socially relevant shows ever made, but you have to watch many episodes to understand why. Archie's armchair is in the Smithsonian for pity's sake! Many shows have tried to replicate its shock value but at the expense of plot and character development. All in the Family was great because its characters were great and its underlying plot was great. I love this show.

2 - The Office (US version) - hilarious with remarkably unique and consistent characters

3 - Lost - completely novel and unique. A brilliant show that feels more like a movie than television.

4 - The Cosby Show - oh, where have the family sitcoms gone? This one was the greatest of all and Bill Cosby is a comic genius and a national gem. This was the first sitcom to portray a successful black family as mainstream. Did it really take until the mid 80s to get to that point on tv?

5 - The Dick Van Dyke Show - a classic show with a blockbuster cast from the 1960s. I watched this one alot as a kid when it was on Nick at Nite. Whatever happened to this kind of smart, clean humor?

6 - Everybody Loves Raymond - The last of the traditional family sitcoms. I've cried tears of laughter more times than I can count while watching this. Quirky and charming. I'll never forget the episode where Ray and Debra have an abstinence contest to see who can last longer without making love. They say the greatest humor is based on reality and this show was so successful because its humor was relatable. Every guy feels like Ray Barone sometimes with a wife like Debra.

Remember When...

2010-03-27T20:18:00.002-05:00

...we had a media that was aware of wars that we were fighting? Those were quaint days. None of this is directly Obama's fault but when was the last time we really heard about how things are going in Iraq and Afghanistan? With Bush in office the media was out-of-this-world excited about telling us constantly what the latest body count was. Are you aware that since the beginning of 2010 US deaths in Afghanistan have tripled? Of course you aren't because CNN isn't gonna tell you that. Now I may be cynical but I somehow can't imagine that important fact being "forgot" if W. was sitting in the oval office. I'm not in any way blaming Obama for the increase in war casualties (I don't know enought about what has changed to say whose fault it is) but one has to wonder what, besides a desire to protect Obama's image, is behind the media's disinterest in our wars ever since, oooh, sometime around November 2008.

It's a great day do be a Cline

2010-03-27T15:36:00.003-05:00

As well as an expensive one. I woke up this morning and decided today was the day we were mowing the weeds, I mean lawn. And by we I mean Troy. I've never actually done it myself and plan to never have to do it since I'll have four able bodied men in my home. Anyway, I pushed Troy out of bed and sent him to buy a lawn mower. Then we decided we needed a weed eater. And some other stuff. Now our tiny backyard looks tons bigger. One side had very healthy, very tall weeds and now that they're gone the boys are very happily making a muddy mess where they once stood. I wish I'd taken a picture. I planted tulips, hyacinth and some fuzzy leafed something or other around our tree out front and made friends with grubs. Grubs are so gross. If the plants don't all die, as I suspect they will, it will look very nice. Our ward also had an Easter activity this morning and it was absolutely fantastic. The kids were all sent outside to find an egg in each of six colors. Then we went through stations as families as people talked about the Resurrection. I'm pretty sure the boys were just thinking about the candy they got as they turned in their eggs at each station but I really enjoyed it. Then we had lunch and the Primary president went around passing out the remaining candy.

What a great day.

Gradulation

2010-03-24T13:45:00.004-05:00

That's no typo. That's how Ian says it and I like it. This past weekend went made the trek to Ohio for Troy's "gradulation." It was a blast and so exhausting. On the way there we stayed with a roommate of mine from BYU. I hadn't seen her in probably six years but she offered her home to us and I'm glad she did. After all the boys and husbands were in bed we went out in our PJs and got a chick flick and ice cream. It was totally like being young again.Of course back then we didn't have these cute kids. After getting filthy in the yard (she has a great yard for little boys) they wanted to all bathe together. Chase opted to go solo upstairs. I don't blame the kid. It got pretty crazy.

Once we got in Columbus it was a a crazy time of trying to visit with as many friends as possible and to eat as much food as our stomachs could handle. Danny's cobbler was amazing as was Restaurant Silla. I highly recommend it. Awesome Korean food.

Seeing Troy graduate was wonderful. It really made those 5 and a half years seem worth it. His parents and a brother came too but his sister got sick and couldn't make it. That was a bummer. The ceremony was super long but Troy went in determined to leave as soon as he got his diploma and leave he did. I thought he'd chicken out because the escape looked tricky but it saved us so many hours.

Here are some pics we took once we got out.

Isn't the hood impressive? And the tam? They ought to be for what we paid. Seriously though, I'm so proud of him and I love him for what he accomplished. Not everybody can do what he did (me being one of those people) and it was amazing seeing him in his fancy PhD garb. He is a hard worker and so smart and I sure got lucky when he decided he was "into me." Well, I guess Jess actually decided that but he came came around :)

Where Do I Begin?

2010-03-23T08:58:00.004-05:00

Well we got the health care reform that Obama and Pelosi so desperately wanted. Every poll out there revealed that a majority of Americans didn't want this specific legislation but we left off being a representative republic long ago. Besides, imagine if your life's work for over one year came to nothing as would have been the case for Obama had this bill not passed. You can see why he pushed so hard and made good on his promise to "do whatever it takes" to pass health care reform.

Let me begin by saying that I was not opposed to the idea of health care reform. But why a 2,000 page monstrosity of a bill that nobody fully understands and that very few in the House of Representatives thought was a good bill? If you want to require insurance companies to offer services to those with pre-existing conditions then pass that bill, fine. But in these 2400 pages is written, perhaps, the greatest intrusion into the ability of American citizens to choose what is right for them. Don't believe me? Let me enlighten you. Have you heard the Democrats touting these aspects of their plan? Let's say for instance that you are a single guy, if you take the government plan your policy must, by law, include maternity and pediatric services. Let's say you're a female who can't bear children, if you elect the government plan your policy WILL include maternity coverage. Among other things you will also be forced to have all of your behavioral treatment and substance abuse services covered. Is it not a better system, a system based more on choice and liberty to actually allow citizens to choose what coverage they will and will not have?

Maybe you'd like to save money and buy a policy from a private insurer that offers lifetime or annual caps on coverage? Maybe that will work for you. Tough, you have no choice. Health insurance providers are no longer allowed to offer those packages. If you've got a package like that right now, your premiums are almost guaranteed to rise.

Let's say you are a business owner with greater than 101 employees and you don't want to offer insurance to your people. No can do. The government will charge you a fee of $750 per employee (up to $2000) under the pending reconciliation package. Let's say you're a physician. Well, you've now got Uncle Sam breathing down your back. You will be issued a report by the federal government, based on claims data, detailing how your resources and the quality of your care compares with other physicians. Of course, this will never be used for anything but informational purposes. The government will never use this to intervene in your practice, that would be silly.

What if you are a pharmaceutical company? Well, you're gonna be paying your fair share of more than $2 BILLION that will be extracted from that industry every year by the fed and you're gonna like it. What if you are a private insurance company? Well, you're gonna pay your fair share of the $7 BILLION that will be extracted from that industry each year. Let's say you need to raise your premiums to help ease the blow of having all of those dollars drained from your company each year? Not too fast buster. That rate increase needs to be deemed "reasonable" by the department of health and human services. What if you are a company that provides medical devices? Well, you're gonna pay your fair share of the $2 BILLION that will be extracted from that industry each year. How are any of these policies business-friendly? And how can anyone in their right mind not believe that this legislation is just a stepping stone to a one-payer system? Because how can private insurance compete in this kind of market when the government has the advantage of receiving billions and billions of free tax dollars each year? Private insurance will be driven out, there's no way they will survive. I'm sure Obama (who is a proponent of a one-payer system) used this information to get Dennis Kucinich to come along and vote yes. Amazing what a private flight with the prez on Air Force One can accomplish, eh Dennis? So in case you're counting government now has control of health care (including your doctor and your hospital), the banking industry and the auto industry. Explain to me how this is different than soviet Russia?

What if you own a hospital and want to expand. Sorry, can't do that unless your hospital is in a county that has seen a population increase greater than 150% of what the state has experienced. And even then you can't expand beyond 200%. Too bad if you think you know the business of hospitals better than the government.

Okay, so there are some of the freedom-destroying measures in this bill. Now let's talk about it's constitutionality. Injunctions are being filed today in multiple states to bring this bill to the courts to assess its legality. The main argument will be that government has no right to make legal residence in this country contingent on your purchasing a product from a private industry. Which this bill does for the first time. The court will be split over this because there are several supreme court justices who would love to find a case by which they can shift the balance of power in this country from the states to the federal government in a drastic manner.

Now let's talk about the deal that was struck between Bart Stupak (D-NY) with Obama to bring the pro-life democrats along for the ride and give him the votes needed to pass this thing. This is the scariest part of all to me. Obama agreed to sign an executive order delcaring that federal funds will not be used to pay for abortions. A number of democrats in the House were concerned that the language in the Senate version of the bill did not clearly forbid appropriating federal money to abortions. Well, either Stupak and Obama are completely stupid and don't understand that an executive order CANNOT change the law (in which case the executive order is completely worthless and would mean nothing if the issue ever came before a court) or congress just knowingly set a very dangerous precedent by allowing an executive order to rewrite the law of the land. If this is the case then we essentially have a dictatorship now. Regardless, Obama's executive order is unconstitutional and an affront to the legislative process in this country.

This bill will get to the Supreme Court and Obama knew it all along. This is why he stood in front of the court during his State of the Union address, with an applauding democratic congressional caucus behind them, and bullied them and chastised them for a recent decision on campaign finance. In that forum his actions were completely uncalled for. FDR pulled the same kind of crap (though not during a State of the Union address) after the court found a number of his New Deal measures to be unconstitutional (ie - setting a minimum price that companies are required to charge for their products). FDR went into total smear campaign against the court. Obama is doing the same, I think, in hopes to intimidate the court into not finding this clearly unconstitutional legislation to be, indeed, unconstitutional.

I think this picture is a perfect display of the smugness and arrogance with which Nancy Pelosi rammed this legislation on us. Well, with the president's approval rating now sitting below 46% according to CNN (marking the first time that more people disapprove of his performance than approve) and congress's approval rating sitting at 11% for the House and 8% for the Senate I'm guessing that Nancy won't be laughing in November.

This Is Why We're Told To Read The Best Books

2010-03-17T20:57:00.002-05:00

As written in "Civil Disobedience" by Thoreau:

"Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. IT does not keep the country free. IT does not settle the west. IT does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that had been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way."

As written in "Anthem" by Ayn Rand:

"But I still wonder how it was possible, in those graceless years of transition, long ago, that men did not see where they were going, and went on in blindness and cowardice, to their fate. But such has been the story for I have lived in the City of the damned, and I know what horror men permitted to be brought upon them.

Perhaps, in those days, there were a few among men, a few of clear sight and clean soul, who refused to surrender that [world]. What agony must have been theirs before that which they saw coming and could not stop! Perhaps they cried out in protest and in warning. But men paid no heed to their warning. And they fought a hopeless battle, and they perished with their banners smeared with their own blood. And they chose to perish for they knew. To them, I send my salute across the centuries, and my pity."

As written in The Federalist: No. 8 by Alexander Hamilton:

"The violent destruction of life and property incident to war - the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, will compel nations the most attached to liberty, to resort for repose and security, to institutions, which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe they, at length become willing to run the risk of becoming less free."

Debt Up To Our Eyelids

2010-03-14T20:02:00.002-05:00

I found a reassuring article tonight about the state of the Social Security program. We all know it's crap and that it's a big fat fraud but it has now reached the tipping point. This year, 2010, Social Security is expected to pay out more than it collects in taxes, $29 billion more. Well there's supposed to be a nest egg to fall back on. The government was supposed to be putting money aside into which they could reach when times like this come. They did put that nest egg aside but everybody knows that it has all been a lie. That money, in one of the greatest frauds ever played on the American people has already been spent. It was used to pay for heaven-knows-what other stupid government programs over the years. The nest egg isn't there. So what happened is the government gave IOUs to the social security administration. They're kept in some offices in Parkersburg, WV. Well, the government is going to have to own up to those IOUs this year because social security is going to be paying out more than it takes in this year (and probably will well into the forseeable future). Where will the government get this money from? Will they cut benefits promised to others through other programs? Probably not. Most likely they'll borrow money from China or something. That's what they usually do.

You know, we really only exist as an economy because other countries (mostly China) have had enough confidence in our system to buy our debt. Well, China is becoming pretty mighty in their own right. They aren't going to need us forever. The day may soon come when they want to collect on all of that capital of ours that they are keeping. We don't have it to pay to them. This has been a problem with both parties for decades. Nobody has had the nerve to stand in front of us and tell us how bad things really are. They've continued to do what is best for their own political careers in the short-term (don't get me started on the evils of career politicians which is completely not what the founders intended). So instead of letting us know how bad things are and what the price will be to fix it they continued to prop up the US economy with fake money. No problems ever got fixed. All that ever happened was reallyl big, and REALLY expensive band-aids were applied to put them out of sight for a while. I'm beginning to realize that most of my life (heck, probably all of it) the prosperity of America wasn't real because it was all bought on credit. That's what happens when government tries to do too much. Is it any wonder that the average American has $15,000 in credit card debt? Is it any wonder that the housing crisis occurred? That so many Americans have had to foreclose on their homes? From the halls of congress down to the most modest abodes in this land our society is addicted to debt. How much longer can we survive? Government doesn't seem to get it even still. The deficits that the congressional budget office predicts over the next three years under Obama's proposed budgets would blow your mind. This year the budget deficit is $1.5 trillion!! Tell me, in what wild fantasy does this country survive when spending money is our drug? And convince me that it's not okay for my blood to boil when I look at my pay stub and see the hundreds of dollars, that I could have used for my own needs and security, that the government has taken to feed this obviously dysfunctional and broken system. It's a complete waste of my work and my money. Don't get me wrong I'm not entirely opposed to social security but it irks me to know that I have 6% of each pay check garnered by such an incompetent and ineffective organization as the US government to feed their lie about social security. When I'm 70 years old I will never see a dime of that money back. True liberty, true freedom would have been to let me keep that money and use it in the way that I choose to provide for my own needs, current and future.

Enjoying the Weather

2010-03-11T08:06:00.002-06:00

Last weekend here was absolutely perfect so we loaded up and went to Overton Park. It has the feel of a Metro Park but is in the middle of the city which is kind of weird. After playing at the park we decided to take the boys on a trail. Before doing that we had to look at a map of course. I think the map was Seth's favorite part. Along the trail we saw lots of huge trees and fungus growing on some of them. There was also a Gnome Home.

I tried to get in it but my butt was too big, even with all the walking I've been doing. Seth and Ian totally would have fit but they're so terrified of bugs (which they thought it was full of) they wouldn't go in. Later we found what Troy called the "Mid-South Arches" and we all climbed around on it.

Later that day, because it was so nice, we bought a water hose and nozzle so we could wash the car. The boys couldn't believe that you can wash a car at home. They've never seen it done but ended up being naturals. Good thing too because they're going to spend a lot of time in their youth washing our car.

Chase wasn't interested in the car washing fun. He found that water was spraying out from around the faucet and spent his time trying to find ways to drink it.
Last night was our first thunderstorm/tornado watch which was fun. No wait, that's a lie. It was horrible. At least Chase slept through it. We also found our first giant spider in the house and I'm pretty sure it was a baby. We've also started wearing shorts which is bizarre. You'd think having grown up in California where spring comes this early I wouldn't be so shocked by this. My body really did adjust to Ohio and forgot what it was like. Even with the snow on the ground I'm sooo excited to go back next week for Troy's graduation.

I go outside for one minute....

2010-03-08T16:42:00.004-06:00

...just to pop in a screen so the gross bugs can't come in and come back to find Chase doing this:

He is much faster at making mischief than his brothers ever were. And they were fast.

Teacher Conference

2010-03-05T09:46:00.002-06:00

Last night we met with Seth's teacher for a conference. She only had good things to say which as a parent I just love. Then she told us that the little girl across from him sits and stares at him. She has to be reminded sometimes to do her work. She also told us that when he first came all the girls were gaga for the exotic boy from Ohio. Just thinking about it has me chuckling to myself all over again.

The Price of Universal Health Care is Integrity

2010-03-04T08:44:00.002-06:00

Democratic congressman Jim Matheson, representing Utah's second district, has until now been a "NO" vote on the proposed health care reforms. He's now undecided and I expect that to change to a "YES" vote very soon. What's behind his sudden retraction of his opposition? Health care reform is going to be bought with his integrity. President Obama met with about 10 democratic representatives who are threatening to vote "NO" if abortion language isn't removed from the current bill. The same day that Obama meets with these guys (including Matheson), Matheson changes his stance to undecided. In what is probably compleeetely unrelated, Matheson's brother is names as a judicial nominee by the president to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Hmmmm...

Remember when Obama talked about "politics as usual" and how he "[didn't] want to learn how to plan the game, I want to change the game plan?" Whatever happened to that guy? Oh, I know, all along it was a sack of dirty lies just as I suspected. So who has less integrity? Obama for offering the bribe, or Matheson for accepting it?

I Thought these People Were Supposed to be so Tolerant

2010-03-01T19:57:00.003-06:00

Just read a frightening article from the Financial Times about a push by French president Nicolas Sarkozy to ban women from wearing a burka in public. Four other EU nations also support this move (UK, Spain, Italy, Germany). Support for such a ban ranges from 50% in Germany to 70% in France. This kind of religious intolerance is frightening and perhaps gives meaning to Elder Oaks's recent BYU-Idaho talk on the importance of religious freedom. I don't claim to understand why Europeans would support such a move but on the other hand one doesn't have to understand the "why" to know that it's very, very wrong. What's even more frightening is that when asked whether they would support an all-inclusive ban on wearing religious apparel such as a crucifix or a Jewish head cap only about 10% of respondants said they would support that. So this is some kind of bias against Islam specifically. In the US, 33% said they would support such a move in our own country. That's also crazy. But 70% in France? I thought Europe was supposed to be a bastion of liberal tolerance?

Finally

2010-02-28T17:39:00.002-06:00

It's finally happened. After a month in the ward we have callings. I'll be in Primary teaching the kids turning five and Troy's teaching the 16/17 year old Sunday school class. He laughed when he got his call and I was glad I wasn't him. I'm pretty happy to have something to do. You always think you don't want a calling when you have one and all I'm going to say is that it made me feel like a bum. I'd gotten used to meetings and planning and teaching and not doing anything made me feel pretty useless. The best part of it all is that I'm teaching Seth's little crush who announced to her class that he's her friend and they're getting married. Little kid crushes are cute. The other day he was telling us all about what he does at recess and it turns out there's a little girl there that he thinks is really cute. It seems like just yesterday he was in my womb but I guess five years really have gone by.

It just dawned on me that we're going to Ohio in three weeks. I'm so excited! Not for the two and a half hour graduation because that's the opposite of fun but because I miss my friends and dutch oven cooking. I wonder how warm it'll be...

Pushing buttons

2010-02-25T13:46:00.003-06:00

Seth has one mean temper. It flared up Sunday when the collar of his shirt started bothering him and I told him all his church shirts had collars. An arguement followed with Seth ultimately being sent to his room. He went upstairs screaming, "I hate everything!" Ian, who was sitting in a diaper box piped up, "Jesus loves you." Luckily Seth didn't hear. Ian's always pushing Seth's buttons. We've all been given talents and that's definitely one of his.

Can You Say Conflict of Interest?

2010-02-24T14:39:00.002-06:00

So Congress is making the head honchos of Toyota parade in front of them and explain how they managed to manufacture cars that suddenly accelerate without any warning. This is a PR nightmare for Toyota - they are on national tv getting questioned and scolded by our nation's lawmakers in front of any American who cares to tune in. This all seems like a fair idea, right? The government has every right and even the responsibility to question auto manufacturers if there is a problem in the safety of a particular company's cars, right? Under conditions that existed one year ago of course. But these are strange and scary times when the government has expanded itself to the point where it has a majority stake in GM and Chrysler, Toyota's competition. Does anybody else see the huuuuuuuge conflict of interest here? Congress essentially owns GM. Toyota is sitting in front of their competition answering for their deeds. Now, yes, Toyota has a problem here that needs to be fixed but is it not becoming obvious why government control of private industry is a very, very bad thing. Congress has no credibility when they call Toyota to testify. They would have no credibility if they called some bank to testify in front of them because the government IS Citibank! It's an outrage.

Now normally recalls such as the one on Toyota vehicles are handled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration but the Toyota ones were handled by Obama's Transportation Secretary, an executive officer. Again, the conflict of interest here is so obvious yet nobody seems to be talking about it. Just one of the blatantly obvious reasons why government interest in a private company to this extent is a dangerous and bad thing.

Things That I Just Don't Miss

2010-02-21T20:56:00.002-06:00

After just 7 weeks in Memphis it's too early to tell whether I'll end up liking Memphis or Columbus better but I can already list a few things that aren't missed about central Ohio. They are, in no particular order:

1) Snow, ice, cold. Ohio winters are dreadfully dreary. It seems that the sun disappears between the months of November and April. Here in Memphis, even on the cold days unless it's raining the skies are, for the most part, clear and sunny.

2) Ohio State fanatics. Look, I'm as big a college football fan as the next guy but the obsessive nature of OSU fans is a bit annoying to me. It's nice to live in a city that has more to live for than college sports.

3) Snow. This one is really important to me. I just don't miss that snow.

4) And this one has nothing to do with living in Columbus or Memphis but how about that US men's hockey team taking out the Canadians tonight!!! Nothing will top 1980 in sheer shock value but tonight's victory for a much younger, inexperienced group of Americans taking on the 'who's who of the hockey world' in that Canadian team is stunning nonetheless. It's on to the elimination round. Coming into the tournament the Americans were thought to be a player for the bronze and no higher. After tonight, they've shown that they're in it to win it.

Current Events

2010-02-19T16:16:00.002-06:00

So did I not get the memo? Was I supposed to watch Tiger Woods apologize for his infidelity? I think it aired on every channel. Boy, am I glad we only watch PBS in the mornings.

I recently found out my 10 year reunion is this October. The planners clearly weren't thinking about people with children who have to travel long distances to get to Tulare. Seth can't miss that much school (we typically visit for about 2 weeks) so it looks like I get to fly solo. Isn't that exciting! I'm going to think of it as a vacation, alhough I may be the first person in history to go there and call it a vacation. If you've ever been there you understand. Maybe I can get my mom to leave chocolates on my pillow each night. That would help.

Crafty Cupid Night

2010-02-16T09:11:00.005-06:00

I made these for the boys at craft night. I think they're pretty cute. I love that I got to use pink for something :)

Smooth Talker

2010-02-13T21:34:00.004-06:00

We were invited to dinner last night by some new ward members. They were great and we had a good time and then we found out they're moving this summer when he finishes his residency which figures. Seth and their oldest daughter totally hit it off. During dinner, talk turned to Star Wars (typical) then Seth says:

Girls don't like boy stuff. Let's talk about Barbies.

He also announced his intention to marry her during the same meal. It was great. He was all ready for a play date today.

I've spent the last couple of weeks watching Emma on PBS since I read the book and I really liked it a lot. So much so that Jane Austen is getting a second chance and I'm going to take Leanne's advise and am going to read Persuasion.

Joe Biden Is Smoking Dope

2010-02-11T20:35:00.003-06:00

So Joe Biden, a complete and total buffoon if you ask me, goes on Larry King talking about how (and I quote) "I am very optimistic about Iraq. I mean this could be one of the great achievements of this administration." What?

Set aside your personal beliefs about the wisdom of that war. That's a separate issue. But to think that the administration wants to accept some of the credit for things ending well over there (which is also a matter of debate) is ludicrous. If Biden had had his way the country would have been carved into three separate regions each being populated by different sectarian groups. That's the great wisdom of the man who is now our vice-president. Idiot. And if Obama had had his way the surge, which everybody now realizes greatly decreased violence in Iraq, would never have happened.

He goes on to say that we're going to see a stable government in Iraq that is moving toward a representative government. Well, I hope so but to think that Biden wants to take credit for such a thing is off the charts hilarious. Again, putting aside the fact that we probably haven't gained a whole lot given our 7 year investment in blood and dollars over there, Biden must think we're all as dumb as he is if he expects those Americans who are inclined to look at Iraq as an achievement to attribute that achievement to the Obama White House. But given the year that this administration had, they've got to take what they can get. I can't help thinking that every time Biden opens his mouth the president is sitting somewhere lamenting his choice of running-mate.

It's A Bloody Hot Dog

2010-02-11T13:48:00.004-06:00

It's been a while since Troy contributed. Sadly, as a postdoc, I haven't as much down time as I did in grad school. Well, today is a bit slow so I got to thinking about hot dogs. I love hot dogs but I'm a hot dog snob. I only like 100% beef dogs. Stuff like Hebrew National and Nathan's. Well, being such a great food city I wondered if Memphis has a great hot dog place. I stumbled across this shot of a t-shirt which depicts various styles of hot dogs based on geographical location:

The one on the bottom right is a Memphis-style hot dog. Apparently, there's such a thing as a Memphis-style hot dog and T-shirts never lie so it's got to be true. I was reading the comments that people were making about this hot dog article in a local paper and found this exchange between two commenters to be very amusing in a nervous kind of way:

Person 1: Is that BBQ sauce or just lots of ketchup?

Person 2: Looks like blood to me.

Person 1: Yes, it's definitely blood. This is how it works, you're just sitting on your porch eating a hot dog when all of a sudden gunshots ring out and you find yourself a victim of a drive-by shooting...bleeding onto your hot dog.

Bloody hot dogs and commercials pleading with people to not murder, ahhhhh Memphis!

Another Snow Day

2010-02-08T08:28:00.006-06:00

So we got another snow day and this times it's almost legit. The boys can go out and play in it so it definitely beats the last few snow days. I know it's nothing compared to what you all are getting up north and that's okay with me.

We made a little snowman (wanted to make sure there was plenty for throwing)

Threw a lot onto the fence.

Ate some.

Did some construction.

Practiced driving. Wish Tennessee parents would teach their kids too.

The boys came in friends and were fighting again about 2 minutes later.

Yesterday was Chase's first day in nursery. I'd like to say it went well but that would be a lie. We did the drop and run since that's what we did with Seth and it worked. Didn't work with Ian, thought it might work with Chase. They came and got Troy after the "meltdown." Once Troy was there he was fine. He didn't need to be held or touched. So Troy left and came back at the end of nursery to a screaming child. Oh well. We'll just keep trying. On a positive note I got to hear great Sunday school and RS lessons. Here he is before we left home and ruined his life.

After that we napped and headed off to a Super Bowl party. A REAL party. They were betting on everything, food was everywhere, alcohol was flowing freely. It was a lot of fun. The woman who threw it works with Troy and she had kid movies set up in a separate room so the boys had a great time too. We even won the trivia game (the only thing we could do without betting first). Grand prize-a football air freshener and a Barack Obama pin. I missed our party though with all our friends crammed into the living room. And Kari's cheese dip. Yum.

Detox

2010-02-01T11:37:00.002-06:00

Chase is currently undergoing pacifier detox. It's been 24 hours and he's still alive. We forgot it at church yesterday and thought we might as well see if now is the right time to take it. It looks like it is.

2010-02-01T08:49:00.000-06:00

Ian learned about how to pray yesterday. He is thankful for purple light sabers and dad. That's Mace Windu with the light saber, in case you were wondering.

Seth had his first spelling test a couple of weeks ago. Of course he got them all right.

Yesterday Troy and I got our obligatory, we-just-moved-in-to-the-ward talks. It is so nice to have that out of the way. Of course it was a great experience for us both but I've been totally stressing about it the last week. I was assigned "Love and Law" by Elder Oaks and Troy got "The Love of God" by President Uchtdorf. I thought we did pretty good jobs but actually giving the talk was kind of weird because it was sooo quiet. Westland Ward meetings were not quiet. And it's not like there aren't a lot of kids here because there definitely are. It was like talking to a room full of adults. I just hope people weren't listening and feeling us out for potential callings. We don't have any yet and it's always scary getting a new one.

We still like it here. An ice storm on Friday morning meant a day off from school for Seth and because one school in the district still has ice he doesn't have school today. I think that's totally crazy. That child needs to go to school. I love him but he and Ian get into fights when they're together too much. It drives me crazy because Ian's always picking on Chase and I can't deal with it all at once. What will I do this summer?

Two posts in one day?

2010-01-23T17:25:00.000-06:00

Crazy I know but I did something cool so I'm blogging it.

Say you won the essay contest and are now visiting us (so far the votes are split between Darcie and Heidi). You realize you need to use the facilities. You open the bathroom door and find this:

You take a closer look.

You think to yourself, "Did Sarah make these?" and you are amazed. Or maybe not but I think they're pretty cool. This is the rest of the bathroom.

It Has Begun

2010-01-23T09:26:00.000-06:00

Seth's new school is great. They go every day, he brings home tons of work that they do and they have cool celebrations. Last week they celebrated the 100th day of school by dressing like they were 100 years old (well, three kids in his class did) and on the 101st day they came to school like Dalmatians and made ears to wear. All good stuff. And his teacher's cute as a button. I'm very happy.

Here's Seth at 100.

Powder in the hair. He smelled great.

As a puppy. Crafty Sarah sewed black felt on his shirt.

He's learned something else at school too. The other day we had to run to pick up some last minute stuff for dinner. As we were getting out of the car, Seth say the following to me:

Mom, I learned a new word at school (this could be bad!). I learned "y'all". I'm going to start saying it.

We've been here three weeks and it's already begun. My first kid has gone Southern.

Our New House

2010-01-19T12:55:00.001-06:00

As requested, here are some pictures of the new house. I tried to get it clean first but finally gave up or you'd never see the inside :)

This is what the kitchen looked like at move in. Now it looks like a well used kitchen. Here's the fireplace. Not that we'll ever use it with three crazy boys, one of whom is pretty clumsy. It is a nice place for the TV though.

This is our entry way. Chase has already pulled the lower hooks out of the wall. I knew I should have put anchors in but this house is someone's actual property, not an apartment, so I didn't want to. Luckily we only need light jackets for a good bit of the year, not big heavy coats that would pull out my other hook.
Here's the view from the stairs as well as the boys watching Wall-E after church. The wall to the left of the table is screaming for another bookshelf- where else am I going to put the Hunger Games and Catching Fire when I finally buy them? Also to the left of this picture would be the rest of the couch with the kitchen behind that. Troy was napping though and I didn't think anyone would want to see that.

And of course the outside. Our yard is tiny, front and back, and it looks like the back is going to flood every time it rains. I was hoping to plant a tiny garden back there but most plants don't do well in bogs. There is a little patio though.

So there's our pad. The boys love all the room and Chase loves falling down the stairs. I still haven't done anything with the boys' rooms (and probably won't) and all the homeless stuff is currently finding refuge in our room which is HUGE! Seriously, I think it's bigger than our old living room. It's definitely not a house that I'd want to buy and live in forever but I think it will be great to rent during our time here.

A New Year

2010-01-15T23:19:00.000-06:00

So we're already half through the month of January and I'm just now getting to resolutions but we just got the internet so it's alright. First a recap of last year's:

1. I lost the baby weight (I might have gained a little back over the holidays)

2. I did not get pregnant. I'm still not pregnant, although Troy told Darcie and BJ that I am. Darcie may never forgive him.

3. We're in Tennessee. Officially we didn't move in until Jan 1st but we left Ohio before the year's end so I think that counts.

Resolutions for this year:

1. Make some friends. I was totally spoiled in Columbus with amazing friends. Currently all my friends are far away and that is sad.

2. Get a car. We live too close to Seth's school for him to ride the bus so I have to walk 1.2 miles each day to pick him up. Good exercise but not fun with a grouchy kid who's been at school all day and doesn't want to walk 1.2 miles home. On the bright side, I should end up with an awesome butt and maybe my calf muscles will appear again.

3. Expand my container garden. Our backyard's totally shaded by the fence so it looks like I'll be working with containers again. This will be the year of the watermelon, the cantaloupe and no blossom end rot.

By the way, we are now in Memphis. It was 60 degrees today. That's all I have to say to you Buckeyes. Ha! It was pretty cold when we first got here and it even snowed enough for Seth to get a snow day. Check out how deep and dangerous looking it is. Oh wait, is that the road you can see there? And the grass? So maybe people here are crazy but that's okay because it was 60 degrees today!

Will This Wake You Up?!

2010-01-08T11:17:00.000-06:00

On December 16, 2009 President Obama signed an executive order amending a previous EO enacted by President Reagan in 1983. This amendment designates INTERPOL, an international law enforcement agency, as an agency that is "entitled to enjoy certain privileges, exemptions, and immunities." So what does that mean? That means that an international agency has full privileges to function within the territorial United States without being subject to the same constitutional restraints that apply to all domestic law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and the CIA. Second, INTERPOL's domestic offices including those located within the Dept. of Justice are now exempted from search and seizure by US authorities and from disclosure of archived documents in response to the Freedom of Information Act. What in heaven's name for?! Think about what you just read. Obama has given an international agency the privilege to act within the United States as it pleases without any of the restraints that the Constitution demands on our own domestic agencies.

You probably haven't heard about this. The president offered no public statement on it and the White House held no press conference concerning it. A number of news agencies have asked for statements from the White House on this order but have received nothing. This is the president who promised "transparency" in government. Obama should be forced in front of a microphone and forced to answer the following questions: 1) Why is an international agency being placed above American law? and 2) Why is it necessary to suddenly have within the Dept. of Justice a repository to stash government documents that are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act?

What are the president's motives here? How much longer will this man be allowed to rip and shred the US constitution and our national sovereignty while those who speak against his actions are laughed at as conspiracy theorists. For the first time in my life I think we have a US president who does not have the best interests of this country at heart. I think Obama despises what this country was founded on and is trying his hardest to remake this nation. I think we're beginning to see what Obama meant when he declared prior to the election that "we are 5 days away from fundamentally transforming America." I think Obama is devious and dangerous to the United States. I've felt this way for about 9 months and I think my instinct is starting to be justified. I'm afraid of where we will be in 3 years.

My Dissertation Defense

2009-12-17T22:07:00.000-06:00

Today was the culmination of my graduate school experience as I defended the 165 page doctoral dissertation that I wrote and the novel scientific findings that I describe therein. I entered the lab in which I did my thesis work in the spring of 2005 on the innate immune mechanisms of controlling respiratory virus infection. Four and one half years (and hundreds upon hundreds of dead mice) later I've figured some stuff out.

Thinking back on all of the hard things I've had to do in my life (there aren't that many, all in all I've had a great life), this has been the hardest by far. In early 2008, after nearly two full years of negative data and an oral qualifying that was very depressing even though I passed, I was nearly ready to chuck it all in, escape with a Master's degree and live the rest of my life knowing that I was not capable. Times like this are hard for a man. I'm entrusted with the financial care of my family and to think that I wasn't cut out for graduate school made me feel like a failure. I had never felt like a failure before. I mean to really feel like a failure! It sapped all of my energy and all of my happiness on far too many days. My consistent failures in the lab were dehumanizing.

Well, obviously things got better and by this past summer I was given the go-ahead by my advisory committee to finish a few final experiments and begin writing my dissertation. The writing process is very difficult and as the deadline approaches to turn the thesis in the stress that builds up is unspeakable. I've never been under so much pressure before. Then the paper is out of your hands and you begin to prepare for the oral defense. The defense of a thesis, at least at Ohio State, involves a one hour seminar where the student presents their dissertation work before a public audience, followed by a two hour private question/discussion session just between the student and his/her advisory committee. After that, the student is dismissed and the committee deliberates before calling the student back in and revealing whether he has passed the defense or not. For about one month leading up to today I was completely absent from my family nearly 24/7. Not physically, but mentally I was also off in some other place. This wasn't done purposely it's just that this event is so absolutely critical that it totally consumed all of my thoughts. Regardless of where I was or what I was doing, the impending thesis defense was always in the back of my mind causing agonizing anxiety. I've even been skipping lunch alot just because I was absorbed in my preparation during the day and honestly I didn't have the time to stop and feel hungry.

The director of my graduate program emailed me last night to wish me luck. She told me to "have fun at my defense." I thought she was crazy! How am I supposed to have fun at this? Well, it actually was fun, oddly enough. During the two hour closed session I was invited to sit down which immediately relaxed me. Then the time flew by as I sat around two tables with my committee and had more of a discussion between colleagues than a rapid-fire question and answer session. It was very scholarly and enlightening. I think I learned today that the point of a thesis defense is for the student to demonstrate to the committee (and to himself more importantly) that he is capable of discussing a scientific project intelligently with seasoned professionals. I came away feeling like I actually do belong to this group of people that we call scientists. The deliberation was very short. My committee took very little time in determining that I had met the scholarly requirements for obtaining a PhD. And as soon as I came home I folded some laundry and did some dishes, two things that I haven't done in weeks and weeks. As I was doing this I realized just how useless I have been around the house lately. I didn't even realized how focused in on my defense I had been and how much I had been neglecting things at home. I'm amazed at how Sarah kept things going around here and can't express enough how much of a support she's been. She has bent over backwards to give me the time and space I've needed to accomplish this. Not once, not once during the past month did she even ask me to fold a towel or unload the dishwasher. Not one word of complaint about the extra work that she had to take on. I've got the greatest and most supportive woman in the world as my wife!

Troy's Defense

2009-12-13T15:48:00.001-06:00

Troy defends his dissertation this Thursday. He is not excited. I'm excited because it means that after five and a half years in Ohio Troy will finally have a real job that pays more than his stipend. If any of you happen to be at a loss as to things to pray for this week we'd really appreciate some prayers for him. Or fasting or both or any other thing you can do that you think might help- you know, bribing committee members and things like that :) The first hour is public so if you want to come let me know and I'll tell you where to go.

Throwing Coals on the Fire

2009-12-09T13:53:00.000-06:00

Not to rehash this old argument but here's an interesting Newsweek article on the long-term effects of virus infection and the role of vaccination in preventing illness. Pay particular attention to the part about Dr. Wakefield, a key proponent of the autism link theory. It seems he's the subject of a hearing in the UK for alleged medical misconduct. Also of note, much of his vaccine work was secretly funded by personal injury lawyers.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/226097

My Favorite Theater Productions

2009-11-30T10:10:00.001-06:00

Sarah took me to see the 2008 Tony winner for Best New Musical, In The Heights, this weekend during its week-long tour stop in Columbus. It was fabulous. It takes place in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, el barrio. It was a simple story of the struggles of those people to get by in their rough blue-collar neighborhood. The show was charming and funny and touching and had a positive message. The music was a mix of traditional show tunes, rap, latin hip-hop, and latin jazz. Quite a mix but it worked out really well because each character had their own niche.

Anyway it got me thinking of all of the musicals and plays I've seen. I've seen shows in New York, DC, Salt Lake, Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Baltimore. I'll even include Provo because I saw a performance of one of my all-time favorite plays The Crucible at BYU that blew me away. As good as anything I've seen professionally. Here they are, all the shows I've ever seen, and the order I would rank them.

1 - Les Miserables: seen it 7 times in various cities, the best musical ever written bar-none
2 - Urinetown: sounds crazy but this is the most entertaining show I've ever seen
3 - Ragtime: knew nothing about this one when I went to see it in Salt Lake in 2001 but it since
has been one of my all-time faves. Thankfully it's been revived on Broadway this
season.
4 - Thoroughly Modern Millie - saw this one on my honeymoon so it has to be ranked highly
5 - In the Heights - great!
6 - Into the Woods - very charming, and hilarious
7 - Beauty and the Beast - much better, in my opinion, that the more highly-touted Lion King
8 - The Crucible at BYU - yes, it was that good
9 - The Lion King - won the Best Musical Tony award over Ragtime in 1998 but there's no
comparison in my mind
10 - Aida - based on the Opera of the same name; music by Elton John
11 - Miss Saigon - ran for a long time on Broadway but it's somehow forgotten
12 - The Music Man
13 - The Phantom of the Opera - sorry, this one is overrated in my book. save some dough
and watch the movie musical instead, it's much better
14 - Doubt - a very timely play, rent the movie starring Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour
Hoffman (one of my favorite actors) if you didn't get a chance to see it

Very Disappointed

2009-11-29T15:59:00.000-06:00

Last night I took Troy to see In The Heights for his Christmas present. It was very good. I think I'd like to go back and read the lyrics though because Usnavy sang so fast. I highly recommend it. After that I wanted a Caesar side salad from Wendy's. I adore those salads. When we got home and I found out that they've changed them and they are no longer tasty. Troy thinks I'm crazy to still be even thinking about my salad but even now I feel the disappointment from last night. What's happening to my Wendy's?

Where to begin?

2009-11-22T22:00:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile so I'll try to catch up on our goings on until I'm tired of blogging.

Today Seth got an All Star award at his elementary school. I am so proud he's following in his mother's footsteps- I lived to get awards. Student of the month, perfect attendance, most likely to succeed. If it came on a certificate I wanted it. He got a medal with his name on it and was in a class skit. Troy and I surprised him at the ceremony. He had no idea we would be there and was so happy when he saw us with the other parents. Also, it was spirit day so that's why we match. I didn't do it just because I'm weird. Although it's true that I am.

The boys are huge fans of Star Wars. They go around humming the songs, having light saber battles, talking about Tatooine. It's crazy. Well, Chase "sings" a lot. One day I realized he was singing the Darth Vader song. I wish I could post a video of it but not with our internet connection. One day.

I also saw New Moon on Friday night with a bunch of friends. Much better than Twilight. I'm so glad I was still here in Columbus and didn't have to be a loser and see it alone. I hope I have friends in Memphis by next June or I'll have to take Troy and he doesn't take the series nearly seriously enough to be any fun with.

Oh yeah, we're moving to Memphis. Troy defends his dissertation Dec 17 and then we're good to go. Not that we have a place to live exactly but that will come. I went with him to see St. Jude at the beginning of the month and it was incredible. The hospital, his future boss and future co-workers, the BBQ were all great. Plus, we were able to eat at the Melting Pot as part of the schmoozing process and it was really cool. Probably if we ever go back it will just be for dessert because it was crazy expensive. We were there a couple of days kid-free and it was amazing. In that time we were taken to the BBQ Shop (don't eat the key lime pie) as well as Pearl's Oyster House. I don't care for seafood but I was feeling crazy and ordered a shrimp po' boy. Yum. I also tried these tasty grilled oysters that were cheesy and spicy. As long as the cheese covered the meat I could pretend it was chicken. I can't wait to get him in Graceland. It's so funny that I'll be in Memphis. It was part of Road Trip 2001. Maybe Jill, Jess and Em can visit and we can relive our youth. I'm hoping lots of people visit us. It makes me very sad when I think of all the pseudo-family we'll be leaving when we go.

Breast Cancer? What Breast Cancer?

2009-11-20T09:20:00.000-06:00

This week the US Preventive Services Task Force (an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services, aka a federal government agency) released new recommendations on breast cancer screening. Get this, after all the money and time that this and other organizations have spent convincing women that they should get an annual mammogram starting at age 40 the USPSTF has suddenly decided that that's all wrong. Now you should wait until you're 50 to start getting a mammogram and now you need one every two years instead of each and every year. Oh, and once you hit 74 you must automatically be immune to breast cancer because the USPSTF recommends mammograms only up to that age. And those self-exams that you've all been taught to do? Skip it. They do no good says the US government.

Now I ask you, does this make any sense? Here are some facts: 17% of breast cancer deaths were among women who were diagnosed between the ages of 40 and 49. During the 90s mortality in women under 50 due to breast cancer decreased 3% each year because of the stringent screening recommendations. So on what, exactly, are the government's new recommendations based? This simply does not feel right to me. Something is terribly wrong.

Let me connect the dots for you in case you're completely oblivious to what is coming our way. It's this simple - this is the happy socialist health care that so many people want. Here it is! Yippee! And this is just the beginning. Conservative voices get ignored or ridiculed when they talk about the rationing of health care that will happen when the government is paying for it or the "death panels." Well? What do you call this? The government is encouraging you, as a woman under 50, to not worry about getting your mammograms. To stop doing those silly self exams. Why? Because if you do and your doctor finds something then they're gonna be footing the bill under a government run system! And under a government run system health care is a line-item on the budget. The government is going to have a health care budget and that means how do they NOT ration health care?!?!? They've got to. They can't just pay for everybody and everything. We all have budgets right? I only have so much money to work with each month so obviously I have to limit (or ration) the amount of food that I buy. Likewise, the government can't spend endlessly despite our recent actvitity. They're gonna have to draw a line somewhere and these new breast cancer recommendations are one way to lower the number of women coming for treatment (ie - lower the cost of treating breast cancer for the US government). Well, it's their effort to lower the number because women, hopefully, will ignore this government B.S. (I guess government and B.S. are kind of redundant) and still get their mammograms because every medical society that I have seen is up in arms about the new government recommendation. And about those 75 year old women? Well, they're out of luck because the government doesn't want them getting screened anymore. You've lived your life now go lay down real nice like in your grave and rid us of the burden of paying for your existence.

Wake up people! Government run health care in this country spells disaster. It spells people dying who shouldn't die. I understand that we've got health insurance problems in this country but, believe me, government taking over the system is NOT the solution. Tell me one time in the history of this country when a government take over actually solved anything besides a war (and they've gotten pretty crumby at that too)? Things are going to get infinitely worse very soon if this health care bill passes. I've got a recommendation for the federal government - go lay down in the middle of the DC beltway at rush hour and rid us of your wanton attempts to destroy this nation!

Science-tizing My Children

2009-11-11T09:31:00.000-06:00

The boys like to watch this PBS show called Sid the Science Kid. It's about a kindergartener named Sid who learns basic science principles in his classroom that help him figure out the answers to questions around his house. For example, in one episode he laments the fact that his banana at breakfast has turned all brown and mushy. Conveniently, that day in class he learns just why such things happen. This morning, Sarah tells me, Sid the Science Kid was all about the novel H1N1 influenza virus. Sid learned all about vaccination and how antibodies bind to, and block, viral entry. Fascinating. Ian may now be better prepared to defend my dissertation next month than I am.

Also, Sarah said told me a funny story about the bus stop this morning. Seth's friend, Curtis, wasn't at the bus stop today. Seth told Sarah that maybe "he has the H1N1 virus." Awesome. He knows to call it the H1N1 virus. Now I'll have to teach him exactly what that means.

Broad Street vs. Broadway

2009-10-27T19:53:00.000-05:00

The baseball world is drooling in anticipation of this World Series. As am I. The first pitch can't come soon enough for me. The Phillies vs. the Yankees. The only bad thing is that it opens in the Bronx instead of South Philly. The top offensive club in the NL versus the top offensive club of the AL. Two spectacularly talented teams. The lineups of these teams read like an all-star team. Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth, Raul Ibanez, Shane Victorino, Chase Utley, and Jimmy Rollins for the Phils; Derek Jeter, Mark Texiera, Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon, and Hideki Matsui for the Yanks. There are lots of Yankee haters in the world. The Evil Empire they're called by some. I've never been one of those guys. I don't mind the Yankees. I think baseball is more exciting when they're competitive.

The Phillies will be seen as underdogs in this series and perhaps they should be, certainly the bullpen advantage (which is where I think this series may turn) lies with the Yankees. But it's the Yankees that come in with something to prove. They've got the $200 million payroll. It's the Phillies, not the Yankees, that are defending world series champions. The Yankees are back in the Series for the first time since 2003 (they lost back then).

It's been a while since the World Series teams have been as high profile, and talented from top-to-bottom, as these teams. This World Series is likely to have ratings that are the best for a World Series in long, long time. It could be legendary. As a raging Phillies fan I wouldn't be disappointed to see the Phils take it in 4 but part of me wants it to be epic. Part of me wants it to go 7. And that's more realistic anyway. There's no way this series is going less than 6. In fact, I think we're going the distance. I'm settling in for the long haul. I think the Phillies will take it in 7. In my opinion they've got a better line-up from top-to-bottom and they've got more guys that play their hearts out and more guys that can come up with a clutch hit when needed. But whatever the outcome, it's going to be outstanding. And the thing is these teams are built for the future. 2010 could easily see a rematch. Here comes the drool again.

The Nobel Peace Prize?

2009-10-09T07:20:00.000-05:00

Really? Has Barrack Obama actually done anything yet? It's true that he has a vision many think to be admirable (I can't say I'm necessarily one of them) but to award him for it without any action? I don't get it.

Praise and Honor to........communist China?

2009-10-01T12:45:00.000-05:00

What is this a picture of? It's the Empire State Building bathed in red and yellow light. Occasionally they put different colored lights on it to commemorate holidays or such things. Red and green for Christmas, pink for breast cancer awareness, green for St. Patrick's day, etc. What does red and yellow signify you ask. Good question. Here's a clue:

Yes, it's the Chinese flag. The Empire State Building was lit in red and yellow last night to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Chinese communist revolution.

What world am I living in where a communist takeover of a country is commemorated by the nation that is supposed to be the stongest supporter of freedom and democracy. If it is true that we're fighting two wars in the middle east to help spread democracy ( a role that I don't feel the USA needs to necessarily play so literally by the way) then why in heaven's name are we honoring a communist revolution? What happened to the America I grew up in? This would never have happened back then.